I stained 1400 sq ft of professionally sanded red oak with Minwax Special Walnut stain. Before staining, I thoroughly stirred 6 quart cans of the stain, mixed them all together in a 2 gallon pail, then poured the stain back into the origianl quart cans to ensure minimum can-to-can variability. The floor was then stained by my wife and I on our hands and knees with rags - it took us ~10 hours, but it came out very nice, and generally even. It has now dried for 48 hours.
There is one thing that bothers me a little, though, and that is a few areas (about 1 square foot each) where it looks like the stain was applied a little thicker than on the rest of the floor. I don't believe this is due to differences in sanding, but to underwiping in a few spots.
My question is this: Is there a way to slightly lighten the darker areas without ruining what we've done? What I've though about is using very fine (000) steel wool with some mineral spirits to lighten the areas - does that sound reasonable? Any "tricks of the trade" you'd care to share would be greatly appreciated. I'm probably being a bit of a perfectionist here, but I want to get it as even as possible before the Fabulon OMU goes on.

Yep, your idea is what I'd try. Try just the thinner first on a soft clean rag and see if that dissolves some of the stain. It should. You may have to scrub a little. Go to the steel wool if that doesn't work.

Thanks, Gary. I thought that might be the way to go. In any case, it will still look beautiful when it's done, but I am a bit of a perfectionist - I doubt anyone else would even notice the slight color variations, but I'll see them every time I enter the room, so it's worth it to me to get it as even as possible.

I just dry rubbed it a little with very fine steel wool and wiped with a rag and the excess stain came right off. Thanks for the help!