I have tried out using a foam brush (while conventional brushes have bristles, foam brushes have a wedge-profile piece of foam plastic) to apply wood protection on the hardwood and softwood surfaces.
Excellent! No more splashes or spray droplets, perfect contour control, and excellent capacity and saturation. Much better than the old brushes, and much quicker too.
Highly recommended. I was using a 'RedTree' (U.S.) brand brush, but there should be UK foam brushes available too.
If this is old news, sorry.