If you have sanded down to the nail heads, you can fix this, although with a lot of work... You take a punch and hammer and give every nail a beating

You'll feel every vertebra for at least a week, but by driving the nails a bit further in, you gain a bit more ''flesh'' for future sanding, afterwards you take the sanding dust, mix it with wood glue and fill the holes.

The same procedure like on long board wooden floors indoors.

Incredible amount of work, but way better than ugly iron stains or a nail ripping a nice groove in your bare feet (and now nice blood stains in the wood) ;-)

Check from time to time if nails work themselves up, wood is constantly ''working'', so nails tend to come out over time, if they become loose, pull them, put matches with wood glue in the hole and hammer the nail back in.

Or you go completely for larch or Douglas fir for your next deck, those don't have to be sanded/stained, as long as the underconstruction is well made, so the wood can dry completely, the wood gets grey but doesn't rot. Such decks can last up to 100years if done properly (proper ventilation, groves between the boards, not mounted directly on concrete, no always shady places, nails/screws out of stainless steel).

That's the only right way to do.... Faucets are not that expensive, if you think about it, you use it (almost) every day, if it holds 15-20years you're paying less than ten bucks per year for it... Even if you take a high quality expensive one.

Buy yourself a bit of peace and replace it with a decent, quality brand one which has a replacement parts supply ( some parts get bad faster than others but if it's already rusty, throw it out)

Edit: don't take fancy fashion colours, just plain chrome, the fashion faucets look nice, but if you want to replace one after a few years, you have almost certainly to replace the whole set of the bathroom, as those colours are out of production.

And don't take matte finishes, they draw calcination like a magnet iron shavings...

NEVER wear gloves when working with rotating machinery.. Better a small cut from a sharp edge or shavings than losing a finger or more.. First thing you learn when working with metal... I saw horrible things.

And if you're having long hair, at least tie them together, better wear a cap or dew rag.. A drill press scalps you better than an Indian chief!