I tried a little box out of some glued up maple and walnut I had laying around and ran into two questions. First, what method do you all find best to look for sanding marks in a piece? And second, is there a good way to keep saw dust out of the open grain of other woods?

The pictures will illustrate the problems I ran into and hopefully clarify my questions as well. In case it matters here is the process I used for making this box.

1. Joint/thickness the walnut and maple
2. Glue up 4 pieces with titebond II
3. Cut to 2.75 x 2.75 x 10" long blank on a table saw
4. Chuck it up and turn this piece
5. Sand with 80, 150,
6. Rub with DNA to check for sanding marks, didn't see any in my shop light
7. Sand with 220, 320, 400, 0000 steel wool
8. Wax with johnson's floor wax (I know, not an ideal finish. But for my little practice pieces it leaves a nice shine and is quick).

Pictures of the offending grain, see all the maple coloring in the walnut grain:


Need to undercut the lid a bit more to let the opening line and decorative line be the same size.


Here are the sanding marks left over:




I don't mind doing more sanding at each grit and/or doing sanding with the grain off the lathe to get rid of the marks. My problem is that I simply didn't notice them til the wax went on. Would water be better at showing the problems than DNA? I just used it because I had some handy and it evaporates quick.