Am I missing something here?  Correct me if I am because I have found 
blotch an easy problem to eradicate.

When I started working with pine I stained it, got awful blotches.  A 
book told me to apply a stain conditioner or boiled linseed oil, let 
it sit 5-10 minutes and then apply the stain.  I ran a test with no 
conditioner, minwax stain conditioner and BLO.  The absence of 
conditioner was a nightmare.  Conditioner worked like a charm, BLO 
also worked but the stain was too light for my liking.

I have never gotten blotch again.

Nathaniel
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