Stirring wasn't the problem...I stirred it 100x one direction, then 100x the other direction, and then 15-20 times in between.... And the doors dried for a week before applying the stain.....I perhaps put it on too thick....but it's so tricky to get the "flatteners" to go on without streaks... Have you used the product with success?

bobsmyuncle, you got me. Not sure what piece is missing for you. The bottom line is I want to give this desk a new finish, a new look, a better wood tone. I don't care if the grain shows and it still looks like oak. I'm aiming for a rich mahogany, not a dark java. This is not a set of kitchen cabinets that commands and defines the room, not even a bathroom vanity. It's a little desk in a cluttered office that I want to have a more pleasing color. My prior experience in refinishing wood has been with strip/sand/stain/poly. I'm now sitting at my kitchen table (maple or cherry, still undecided) that I refinished in a hurry 33 years ago and it will surely outlive me. Still looks good. So I still have a bit of a sanding mentality. As for the Sharpie marks. I did try denatured alcohol and it had no effect. They're close to the front of the desk top and visible enough that I wanted to remove them. Sanding was the only thing that did that. What's done is done. Remember, I'm *not* planning to put on so much gel stain that everything beneath it is obscured. The surface of the wood was rough in places. God knows what got spilled on this desk over the past 25 years. Mostly I've used a sanding sponge and that has smoothed everything out. On the top, some of the stain/finish has been gone long before I did any sanding, so let's call it the condition in which I found it. I do understand that gel stain goes over old stain/finish. My only concern is uneven color on the original, i.e., will gel stain be able to even out the uneven color? I suspect it will as I can apply a little more to those areas. I am somewhat confused by something handymac said. If I sand the old finish off (which I have only done in the Sharpie zone) I won't get it out of the grain, therefore the new stain won't stain. If that's the case, and people typically don't remove any of the stain when they use this product, how is it working at all for them?

OK, here's the link to Projectsneverend's instructions, too. Both of these kitchens turned out great. We are hoping to do the same thing with our new kitchen (we're buying a house with honey oak cabinets). Here is a link that might be useful: Projectsneverend's instructions

Beware of the Georgian Cherry: it's REALLY RED. Brown Mahogany and Candlelight are nice browns. You can mix other colors from that brand with Java to make any brown stain browner - we did a desk in 1/3 Java and 2/3 Brown mahogany for a deeper brown. And Rockler carries a gel stain in "mission Cherry" that is a nice color. http://www.rockler.com/general-finishes-mission-stain-cherry