Deep scratch removal

As you can see that this is a nasty scratch and something had to be done about it.

Firstly, I thought and tried to just work on the scratch itself by using a very hot Chisel and a wetted rag to steam up the surface, so as to raise the grain, this method worked and then I decided to mask tape just along the timber joints that you can see within that area.
Then I sanded off the surface coating and applied a great matching stain however, I had the problem of building up the level between the sanded wood and the finished surface, so I tried and built up the level but was not happy with the overall appearance of the surface, due to sheen levels and very slight colour difference.

So I cut my losses and sanded off the entire surface back to a clean and super smooth finish.
Once again I stained the whole top and this came out fantastic and now just needed spraying over with several coats of matt lacquer as this was used by the manufacture prior to me starting the job.

So sometimes it pays to remove the whole surface to be able to achieve the best results.