Dan, before starting to hand polish "anything that is case gardened" send to John Gillette at Classic Guns for his SLOOOW annealing. This will soften the steel to a dead soft and make hand finishing easier ! The cost is onlt $25. and he will return it usually within a week. I never polish out or engrave a gun without annealing first. Incidently, if you are going to re-color case the action, you eill get better/richer colors by annealing first. FWIW, Ken