I’ll do a little preliminary sanding here just to be certain all is good, and there are no foibles that need to be addressed…
The blankets of rubber can leave their pattern on the surface of the veneer, so I’ll take a wet paper towel and Iron it. This forces the steam into the wood’s fivers causing the compressed veneer to swell…
Allow a few minutes for it to dry thoroughly, and sand lightly with a medium grit paper, 180 to 220 works fine…
You can see how smooth it is at this stage..
Ron Kirn