have a wood (American Walnut) worktop. It's been used in the kitchen for some, and some places are in need of refinishing.

Fairly sure I've got something basic wrong here, so I'll describe what I did.

I sanded back (sanding with the grain) the damaged patches with 80, then 120, then 180 grit, and wiped all dust off.

I then oiled with a rag and Liberon Superior Danish.

In some places the oil took nicely, as expected. In others, it was immediately obvious that there was a problem. The surface remained matt, almost greyish - in the worst places it looked as though the oil was mixed with dust. Now it has dried, all these matt patches are still matt, still look like they have much less oil on them, and look pretty poor when the sun shines at the wrong angle.

Thoughts? Found one suggestion that I should use white spirit (or meths?) to ensure all the dust was removed, but this doesn't seemed to be mentioned on any of the guides to oiling worktops that I've looked at.