Hand Carved and Signed Carving

This is a beautiful little Bufflehead Drake (per the maker). It's long been on my bucket list of things I hope to find in the wild and it finally manifested. I have tried to find the maker to no avail. I also am hoping to get rid of that nasty V mark on the bottom that GoodWill insists on putting on every.single.surface. Damn it. I don't want to sand it so as not to disrupt the grain and/or the signature. Any ideas would be greatly appreciated.