MikeG wrote:
You would have been better off filling the with a filler or
several coats of thinned and sanded back coats of your finish. Now
you don't have much choice but to plow forward adding coats.

Yeah, I realize that now. The "texture" of the grain doesn't bother me
as long as the wood is protected and the grain doesn't collect too much
spilled milk and other gunk.

The only real way you are going to accomplish the task without
adding three, four, five, or six more coats is to sand what you
have now all the way down to where it is flat, note, not to the
wood, just so it is level, and add another coat or two on the
sanded flat surface.

Can't. It's quarter-sawn oak with a very "open" grain. Some of the
"pits" in the grain are lower than the surface of the wood.

I dunno if another 3 or more coats will actually "fill in" the grain,
but maybe it will help?

I'm more concerned about the durability of the water-based. Unless it
hardens as it cures, this will never work out. I can easily
dent/scratch it with a fingernail.

I don't suppose it's possible to put solvent-based poly on top of
water-based poly? :-(

Gary