Hi guys.
I've got a couple of projects that I've made out of Maple now which need to be finished. All of them have a lot of curves and shaping; I made a wooden spokeshave, a bow saw, and a wooden sword for Filipino Martial Arts practice. I used some of Watco's Danish Oil finish on my Spokeshave as a test run, and I got... extreme splotchy-ness. The places where the grain is flat to the surface are very light, whereas even the slightest bit of exposed straws (such as on the curves of the piece) become very dark indeed, and it looks pretty bad.
I haven't worked much with finishes yet. The only other finishes I currently have are Formby's Tung Oil Finish, which I think is Polyurethane based? - but I'm thinking might work as it's very light, and some spray on Shellac. I guess the Shellac would work, but I've never worked with it and I don't believe it is very durable, is it?
What sort of finishes should I be looking at for maple? Especially the sword, as that will see some abuse, so I'd rather not have any kind of finish that will damage easily, or show a lot of contrast if chips exposing bare wood occur.