I have spent a couple of hours sanding by hand whilst waiting for the sealer to arrive. This mahogany is as hard as I remember. Now I have it sanded to a good finish it has some fine what look like very fine band saw lines on the front almost like coarse sand paper grooves. If they do not sand out they could be an issue when I start on the dye. they could leave dark straight diagonal lines. I don't want to have to get the power sander out.