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for metal you want to end with a very fine sandpaper, and you want to wet sand it. wet sanding helps keep it from coming out all scuffed looking and gives it a smoother feel. i bought a sword (high carbon steel) in which the blade was acid etched after being ground (produces a nice sharp edge but not pretty) and then not really cleaned well or polished. it was sharp but there was alot of crud on the blade. this type of sword is more for practical use such as to go along with a course of martial arts study vs hanging it on your wall to look pretty. to clean it up i started with a 1000 grit sand paper and then moved to 2000 grit. all the sanding was done wet. the finish isnt amazing since i didn't want to spend all day on it, but it looked much much better afterwords. i cut the sandpaper into managable sized pieces and then would wet them before sanding. you want to run the sandpaper only one direction on the metal and for the full length of the piece you are working on to prevent swirl marks and little scuffs.
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