1. You didn't sand off all of the old finish. That is the blotchy sppearance.

2. You sanded cross grain with too low of a grit. That is the marks you see. Sand with the grain.

3. You didn't do enough sanding with progressive grits to remove the bad sanding. Stsrt tough snd ginish fine. But not yoo fine, or it will vlose the pores.

4. You tried staining something that still had finish on it, and was badly sanded. That why you have thr poor redilt that you do.

It is a learning experience. You get to start over. Sand all of that back to bare wood.

I see! I just got the table and those marks I mentioned were on there prior to me beginning to sand. I just started standing and I started with 80 grit. Once I saw they wasn’t going anywhere I stopped to get help lol. I’ve never stained before this is my first project but I know that if I don’t get those marks off it won’t look good. So basically I need to continue sanding going with the grain but what grit do I start with?

And THANK you Monique for responding!!!