[A. G. Maisey]

Try scrapers and coarse garnet/sand paper Johan, and work in the same direction as the grain. Never work against the grain and keep working across the grain to an absolute bare minimum.

Using a scraper you can model a piece of wood --- or steel for that matter --- a very little bit at a time, and with minimum effort. For detail work with a scraper you can grind a radius onto the end of an old three sided file, this sort of scraper is very useful to get into corners.

It is best to work with the paper by itself, that is, without a rubbing stick or block, at this point in the job. Fold the paper in three so that there is one rough surface against the back of the paper, this prevents the folded paper from moving around. Don't use wet&dry paper, use either genuine garnet paper (which might be difficult to get hold of), or one of the newer coloured sand papers, if I were doing this job I'd probably be using 60/80/100 grit at this point.