[462ron]

+1 on what Arran suggested. In my case, my cabinet had the usual scratches and nicks, except the top had water damage probably from keeping a plant on it, no gouges. So I started by using CitriStrip on it. That mostly stripped all the old lacquer off and in the process, that removed all nicks and scratches and evened out the finish. Most of the original toner color was still in the wood. When I wipped it down next with lacquer thinner, the original color really popped. So much so that I was seriously considering just applying clear lacquer over it, it looked that good. I had done that previously on a table top radio and it looked great. I have no spray equipment and dreaded using rattle cans on such a big cabinet. Tempted as I was, Ron Ramirez and others convinced me to use a toner on it first before the clear. It is a lot of extra steps to get the finish even. 

Ron