First,I'm another amateur.I do have some shop experience.
I just watched your Kimber 1911 trigger job.
I do appreciate that you are a cut above the guy in his kitchen with the claw hammer ,his wife's nail file and nails for punches.
I believe you want to do quality work.
I have some suggestions..meant to be positive.
A sear jig can be had for $25. I suggest all sear stoning be done with one.
Hard Arkansas stones are great,and appropriate.IMO,they leave a finish that is plenty good.
While they do not cut fast,they do cut. About 50 years ago,a hard Arkansas kept my Buck 110 Folding Hunter sharp.
Especially on very small surface areas,you might be surprised how quickly geometery can be altered.
Consider that if you have a perfect line to line fit,hand stoning or buffing a .0003 error (three thenths of one thousandth) means you do not have full line to line contact anymore.You now have maybe a point of contact.
Try this. Cold blue the surface you want to stone.A sharpie works,but not so well. Two or three strokes of your stone ,what happens? Does the blue disappear evenly?
The "shiny" thing does not mean much. Flat does .You will note the "flaking" of machine way surfaces.
I understand that you may not have access to a granite surface plate and a .0001 indicator,or a toolmakers microscope.They don't lie. If you look close with those,free hand work and felt polishing don't look so good.
I notice you have a vise with the checkered steel jaws. We all hesitate to put gun parts in those.The cardboard is good.
But holding a part in one hand and a file or stone in the other does not produce good work.Too much wiggling. If you know how to use the light,you can see crowned surfaces.
Sometimes the nice,square hard ,even jaws of an E-bay cheap import toolmakers grinder vise and/or vee block are handy.Set your surface to be stoned up just barely proud of flush and float the stone on the vise jaws.A 10X jewelers loupe can help.
With your workpiece in a vise,you can focus on an accurate stroke of your tool,like you would a pool cue.Using a vise greatly improves file/stone work.
A cheap hard Vee Block is very useful fitting a barrel hood. A file should not cut the vee block. Need .008 off? Measure the hood to stand .008 proud of the end of the Vee block and file it down to flush.With a little thinking you can figure out how to use your pillar file safe side and the vee block and your calipers to precisely file the sides of the hood.
No put down intended. Trigger work youtube vids are serious stuff.
One more suggestion.That Kimber is not a Match Target gun. Its a carry gun.
You have to think "Duty/Carry" trigger pull.
A little bird told me the Police Armorer person generally will not allow a 1911 trigger pull under 4 lbs,maybe 4 1/2,to be carried by an officer.
If you use a 1911 with a 3lb 6 oz trigger in a SD shoot,and the armorer is an "expert witness" , sees evidence of a"trigger job",it may lead to serious legal complications.
