Did I say that Roland?
I must have been drunk at the time.
For unfinished wood I take it to a fine garnet paper, probably about 800 is as fine as you'd want to go, then raise the grain with steam, polish with 00 steel wool, when the grain won't raise any more, polish with 0000.
What you do after that depends a bit on what sort of finish you want, and on the wood itself. You might want to steam it again after the first polish with 0000, and then do another 0000 polish, or more than one, or you might want to apply your finish and cut back between coats with 00 and 0000, there are number of ways you can go.
If the end finish is too bright you can take some of gloss out of it with 0000.
If restoring a previous varnish or french polish finish, car polish + gum turpentine will clean it up nicely, and then use a good quality furniture wax.
Depending on what the existing finish looks like, you might like to try a good furniture oil, like Sheraton, and when it has thoroughly dried, then use a good quality furniture wax.
A quick easy finish on new wood is something like Danish oil.
If you want to use a traditional french polish, you must remember to use the pad in a figure eight pattern, and you might need anything up to 20 coats.
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