I have just refinished my 1926 oak hardwood floors. I sanded down to bare wood and finished up with 120 grit paper. I was looking for a light honey color. I did not use the pre stain sealer since the wood is oak and very hard. I used Minwax natural stain and it came out very dark and blotchy in some places. What could have caused this. Should I have just used poly on the bare wood? I would like some color though. Do I have to re-sand the floors and try again? Thanks for any help you can give.

A Minwax natural should/would look the same as Minwax poly. Did you have any stains in the raw wood that didn't sand out? Did you wipe off the excess after applying the natural oil stain? Did you sand the floors uniformly? These things may be the culprit. I'm afraid once the stain is dry, the only effective way to change the color to lighter or more uniform is to resand.

Thanks for the reply. I left the stain on for less than 1 minute and then wiped it off. I believe I sanded the floor uniformly but that could be the culprit. Even though some spots should have come out lighter because I did finish with the 120 grit paper. I removed all the finish to bare wood but there were still some stains in the wood. This was from not having any finish on the floors for so long.

Thats the culprit. A clear finish will not hide stains in raw wood and in many cases, cause them to be more noticable. The correct remedy is to replace stained boards with new floor boards OR go with a real dark floor stain to cover up the stains in the wood, somewhat.