I am no expert or professional by any means. I guess you could say that I am a rookie and just learning the ropes of all of this! I started redoing/experimenting with my own wooden furniture and I absolutely loved doing it and started doing it as a hobby! After a few of my own projects some other people reached out to me and wanted me to do their furniture. I am currently doing a very old table and chairs and I’ve struggled with the table top specifically. I started out sanding it down To 400 grit I then applied minwax pre stain conditioner. I applied the stain she wanted let it all dry and then took pictures to send to confirm it was the result she wanted. It was not. It was too dark for her liking. So I did what anyone would and I sanded it back down and started over. The next color of her choice was again not what she wanted. She changed her mind 3 times before I told her I was not going to keep sanding this table top down and I created my own stain color that she thankfully liked. (She wants a gray over tone on this. Me being a rookie I had no idea how to do that but I was determined to figure it out. In my custom color i mixed dark walnut, gray and a little black cherry with some mineral spirits. After that coat dried I applied a mix of gray and mineral spirits and rubbed it in and immediately wiping it off to avoid it getting too dark. She seemed to like that. Is it the right way? I have no clue. Should I be doing that? Again, no clue. But it worked for her sooo I did it. I used that method on the chairs …. Not on the table top yet. I’ll attach pictures of the chairs. Those are finished.) Okay …. Back to my crazy table top process story… On the third attempt I used a liquid sandpaper because I was absolutely over sanding this dang table top. I don’t think I payed close enough attention to the directions because I put it on sanded in circles like it said but I let it sit for about a half hour then sanded it again before wiping off. When I did I was horrified the color didn’t come off at all like I was thinking it would. I was left with tiny black dots all over the table. So I googled and googled what to do and the only real solution I found was to once again sand it to bare wood. So I did. I sanded it all back down and then applied my custom color. I have noticed little circular shapes and imperfections I did not notice before. The edges are extremely dark and the whole piece just isn’t blended well at all and I definitely would not be okay sending this off with my name associated with it. What can I do to get rid of the dark edges? Do I have to sand again? If so can I wet sand this table? Any tips or suggestions are appreciated. I will take any advice I can get. I’m always looking to learn new things. I attached pictures to help imagine what I’m dealing with here. There is pictures before I applied any of the stain and the after pics that I sent to the owner. Please help! She wants it back this weekend and it is Wednesday so I am in a panic lol oh and I have not applied any type of oil or finish to the table top. It is just stained right now !!! Thank you in advance for any helpful advice!!!