maple finishing tips?

[pezdork]

so i had some curly maple scraps lying around. and i made this little box for a pick im giving my girlfriend for christmas. basically other than drilling the magnet holes all by hand (i know hard to believe because of the precision. lol.

so first before your brutalize me this was a rush, i thought of it and basically spent a few hours on it and a half hour here and their at night. i also have very little experience with staining and finishing wood.

so here was my finishing technique. sand 80/100/120/240/400/microfiber cloth.

first i was reading about finishing techniques for cutting boards and wooden spoons and saw grapeseed oil works. so i applied thin coats let it sit and went back to the 240 and worked it. it became clear this was not gonna have any. gloss or contrast for my little carving so after 1 coat i abandoned ship. went back to the 80 and did a “light sanding” back through.

next i did a quick google search on how to make the flame pop. and one google result was apply stain, let sit for a few minutes. then wipe stain off. sand and repeat. so i grabbed a can of espressso stain (i think its minwax) and went to town. stain, 120-microfiber. 5 coats which i didnt let soak for more than 15 minutes before wiping down with a cloth to remove the stain. i have big hands and hand sanding something this small was frankly difficult and i can see i was sloppy. finally last night i applied a coat of polyurethane then 240-microfiber. the buffing it by hand with a sock this morning(that sounds wrong). for what it is im happy with it. wish it was lighter and curl popped more but for a glorified envelope it works.

so what did i do wrong? what could i have done better? what could i do to make this an easier process?