tabdoo16
Mar-K has a nice write up about different stuff for beds. You will find it very interesting. Lots of questions and answers plus reports on the finishes they tried and experimented with.
I did mine pretty much as Coach-Frank said and it looks good. After 7 years I did go back and refinish it more to my liking. I used oak also.
The only thing I would add is to perhaps use some sealer that Mar-K mentions and can be bought at a boat marine place.
Oh, and be sure to SOAK the ends real good as they will soak up more than just about any other place on a board.