Plywood grain looks terrible after oiling

I am making three ear ring holders for granddaughters, The top pin board is made of very pale off-white 3mm marine ply from Bunnings. The only trouble is, the grain on this ply is very heavily accented when I applied tung Oil finish to the ply. And I have applied 3 coats :(

Can anyone please suggest how to make it look better? Probably too late for these, but in future is there any way I should prepare the pin board first to get nice uniform colour finish?

I have tried shellac, but the dark grain is still highlighted, but not as bad as when oiled.

Hoping someone has some really good suggestions :)

Could be something to do with the glues? It's probably not going to work after oiling but Oxalic acid is pretty effective at removing stains from wood.

If you're looking for a nice material to hang earrings from, IMHO black security screen mesh can look pretty good.
Here's a couple I made for SWMBO a few years ago

Attachment 485113

Attachment 485114

You could try something like a sanding sealer to reduce the blotchiness. However i think you're at the mercy of the grain direction of plywood as this will absorb the finish differently.

Alternatively you could try and stain the ply rather than using an oil finish.

Unfortunately too late for these, unless you want to sand the oil completely, but you'll run the risk of sanding through the ply.

On the other hand i think they look fine.

I've looked at the "premium" and "marine" ply at the big green shed a number of times now and I'm still not impressed with its quality, more like a lack of it to be honest.

The "face" veneers are sanded to within an N'th of their life resulting in a finish thickness which would be far thinner than a sheet of 80gsm paper. That I believe is the major cause of your problems Joe, as what is left of the veneer has very little capacity to absorb the oil finish and the "waterproof" bonding glue prevents it from being absorbed by the layers below.

I've replaced a number of marine ply floors in aluminium boats and have built a few ply dinghies as well, and have always looked very closely at the ply quality and the thickness of the face veneers before purchase. The boat floors were also treated with Deks Olje which is applied thinned at 75, then 50 then 25% then straight in multiple coats to saturate the outer veneers. The floors have lasted over 15 years in heavy recreational use. I doubt the BGS stuff would last months in the same application.