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I am polishing a burr walnut veneer table. Looks great except for a couple of spots size of a coin where the polish will not take. I tried washing/scrubbing these areas with white spirits and it still will not take. Then I tried toluene and same result. It is weird. I assume beeswax would cause this effect but the washing/scrubbing should have removed any trace of wax. Can you offer some advice to this novice.
I presume you are using shellac when you say you are polishing. If so it is a pretty sure bet that your problem is silicon, about the only thing that won't stick to.
This being the case is was possibly caused by Mr Sheen or similar invading a couple of sections of the veneer that weren't properly protected by the previous polish.
Remedy: sand whole thing back and hope that you don't go through the veneer and that you can eradicate it through the sanding. Try wetting the sanded surface with water and if the same sections still repels the the water then you are in a bit of trouble. Go to your local seller of automotive paints and ask for a silicon wash, this should remove all traces of silicon from the surface.
Try again with the water after this is dry and if the problem still persists you might want to think about replacing the veneer. Pretty drastic I know but that is one of the major problems with using a polish with silicon on a timber surface.
If you are not using shellac as the finish then you might try an application of shellac under the finish you are trying to apply. If the shellac takes then you should be able to successfully apply the other finish over the top without the problem occurring again.
Hope this is of some help.
Cheers - Neil :D