How to polish a brass razor

I've been tinkering with my brass Overlander off and on since August.  I was originally thinking about getting it gold plated, but I thought I'd polish it first to see how I liked that. I started out using my Dremel just to see how it did to remove the satin finish Karve uses.  It turned out okay for my initial efforts and after a couple of uses I put it back into its box until yesterday.  This is how it looked in August.


Yesterday I pulled out my assortment of Micro Mesh sanding sheets and worked on the cap.  Progressing from 3600 grit to 12000 grit it didn't take too long to raise the shine to a pretty nice finish.  After that I used some automotive rubbing compound to get the cap as shiny as possible.  Under close inspection I can see I didn't completely remove all the scratches between grits. For now I'll call it good enough. I didn't spend too much time on the base plate mostly wanting to get the edges shiny as possible.  The handle needs extra work, but I have to pickup some polishing cones to get into the groves.  I also need to figure out the best way to polish the neck of the handle.  It'd be nice if I had a big enough chuck in my drill to put the handle in it to spin it at a low speed.  I figure I'll get around to it eventually.

It looks good. I saw in your other picture I was actually gonna ask if it was polished or gold plated because it kind of did look plated in the picture. The Overlander that I just picked up is plated in rhodium. I would love to have all my Karve razors polished.

I think its look great. Love that handle too.