I have read the same posts about the wet sanding trick, but never tried it. I have used cyanocrylate and sanding dust to fill gaps. Personally I wouldn't go with an oiled finish. I would go with Goldspar or something similar.

I do have a great formula for a finish that I used on my workbench and I use on anything I want an old-school finish: mix equal parts of boiled linseed oil and pure gum turpentine. Take pure yellow beeswax and shave it into the mix. I use about 1 lb beeswax per 16oz mix. I just set it out in the sun and the turpentine naturally dissolves the beeswax with heat from the sun speeding up that process. It doesn't smell bad and it makes a great finish that buffs out to a nice shine. A big plus for the workbench is epoxy and other glues don't stick to it.