COMANCHE, THAT IS BEAUTIFUL. WHAT ARE YOU USING IT FOR?View attachment 1122389 Here's some birch plywood I got at Home Depot.
I used minwax classic gray stain then sanded it down after it dried a couple days.
I sanded it to make sure the woodgrain popped.
From there I used a few coats of minwax poly Clear wiped on and sanded and steel sanded between coats with 220 grit and steel wool.
Lastly I used two coats of some high gloss Watco clear poly
Rubbed on with a rag and it's mirror finish.
The grain is beautiful.
I'm gonna do a small test piece after it dries to the point where the poly has no smell any longer then use a buffing pad with polishing compound on my random orbital sander.
Some guys use the pumice powder and or wet sanding before polishing but it's only recommended if you have multiple coats of poly.