I'm not sure if that would work after glazing, I'd say it would depend if the polished effect is a wood's property or a metal's one (or even both combined)
My wood work is nothing biggy : just small random items carved to comfort my daughters when they were younger and caught by colds or other child illnesses. :)
They've proabbly lost them lol since a long time :D
That was still interesting occasions to work on volumes and and textures.
It's a bit old, but on the photo below, I think I had applied the "spoon technique" on the top part (with weird faces) before I started to work on the bottom part, which has less reflections.
Not too obvious on that picture though.
this is pretty cool! I actually wished to carve the branches with shapes like that, but no chance. I like it :) I think I know what effect you mean...
If you don't want to go into difficult carving (which would be a nightmare on a piece like your Davy Jones' beard) You can use a soldering iron or any pyrography tool to draw patterns on it.
Actually any hot enough metallic item could leave interesting graphical effect on wood.
The black curved mark on the bottom left part of the photo above has been burnt like that.
With a clear wood like your Cthulhu's you could obtain damn good contrasted effects, I bet.
Be careful with possible toxic stuff while heating the glaze though (or even the wood itself), better wear some protection.