pnevers

Maybe I can buff out the varnish with 0000 woolite pad and then poly?

Thanks gentlemen for taking the time to respond to my post. The scratches are not "really visible" per se. It was only when light hit the wood at a certain angle that I could see the scratch patterns. I have the project suspended from the ceiling for purposes of finishing and so it spins around. As I watch it slowly spins, I tilt my head to different angles to see how the finish was looking, and that's when I noticed the scratches. I was left wondering if the poly would fill them in or not. I did not sand down into the bare wood. I'm confident that the scratches are in the varnish. I am willing to sand down with 320 grit to remove thin poly coat (it was wipe on 1st coat, so not very thick at all), and then I'll be at the varnish. It's kind of a curvy project that has been completely varnish and would be difficult to uniformly remove the varnish, but I think I could smooth out the scratches in the varnish with fine sandpaper and then poly it. Next time, I'll go directly from dye to poly.

I am finishing a project in which I used water-based dye to pop the grain on bird's eye maple, then I applied a couple thin coats of Zinnser dewaxed shellac (Spray can). I put on my first coat of wipe on poly, but before I did, I figured it would be necessary to lightly sand the shellac with 220 to get some physical bonding. I notice small scratch marks after the first poly coat has been applied. Will these go away with additional coats or wipe on poly or will they remain embedded in the shellac? I don't want to get to far along with the wipe on process only to find out that I need to backtrack and get ride of the scratch marks or start over with the shellac. I appreciate anyone's insight on this matter.