This is part of a 4 piece set - 2 cups, 2 plates. This is Ipe (Janka hardness 3600) from a discarded bench at UCSD.
I started by sanding to 400, added a coat of de-waxed shellac, then maybe a half-dozen coats so far of wipe on Poly, sanded to 600 after 3 or 4 coats. This wood is really special and the cups are glossy without any tear-out. So I would like to get the sides of the plate as smooth. The tear-out in the end-grain isn't terrible, but I want to do the best possible.
So what would you do next to level the end-grain tear-out pores. I can picture more de-waxed shellac, sanding every 3rd coat until smooth and filled in. Epoxy is possible. I could keep going with the wipe-on poly until it is filled in.
What do you think?