First: I have respect for the Colorado School of Trades in Trinidad,Colorado.
I do not intend to bash them in any way.
I have considerable "credential" when id comes to polishing steel. I understudied one of the best mold and Die finishers in the USA. Like Mr DeShivs,I just may have more knowledge and experience at SOME ASPECTS of polishing steel than the instructors at Trinidad have.
I have no doubt that I am NOT the expert at making money polishing to blue guns. That is not my field.
I was trained and gained my experience on steel plastic injection mold cavities. Dimensional tolerances are tighter than nearly all gun work. Generally in the .001 or less range.Cosmetics are critical.When you look at a reblue gun for waviness,distorted reflections...look at the surfaces of high end consumer products ,particularly clear products.
I get you mirror reflection of the cue-tip. We carefully study the mirror for distortion.
As a matter of fact,there are satellites in orbit that don't use wires or fibers for signal communication. They use light beams and mirrors. The mirrors are made of tungsten carbide. The total tolerance for flatness on those mirrors is
.0001 I know all this because I hand polished them. Customer feedback: Mine were the best they ever got.
Foredoms are good tools. I have a couple. One has the low range. I also have a big brother. Its a 1/2 hp 10,000 RPM version I use with rock hard felt wheels I cut with a hole saw and mount myself. It also drives 1 in Tampico fiber re-enforced end brushes.
Do you know what a DME profiler is? Probably don't have them at gunsmith school.
Its a cable drive hand tool,like a Fordom. Only it makes linear strokes. 0-14000 of them a minute,and 0-6mm stroke. It has a pistol grip and a variable eccentric.
That drives stones and laps.I have one,and know how to use it.
I don't own the Gesswein ultrasonic polishing tools,but I have used them.
Typically I would work from a machined ,ground,or EDM finish. We actually ,for example ,would burn a cavity to a specific EDM fin,say a 125. We would know that meant the "texture",high to low spots had a value of just over .001. Plus you have to remove about another .0005 of recast steel.To end up with the correct dimensions,we might leave .0015 to .002 to polish off.
A basic of polishing is that you begin with a uniform finish. Ground,machined,EDM,I don't care. It has peaks and valleys. We cut the peaks off without deepening the valleys.We do that by crossing the valleys.
As we reduce the peaks,we watch the valleys.The instant the valley disappears,we are done. Even polish is controlled by watching the valleys fade. That's how you hold dimension and flatness.
There is such a thing as polishing rouge. It uses rounded rocks. These are intended to burnish rather than cut.
But most polishing compunds use sharp rocks that cut. Silicon Carbide,aluminum oxide,etc. These are "cut" or "Cut and color" compounds.
And they DO remove steel.
An old saying in the trade: "Indicators don't lie,and liars don't indicate"
No,I'm not calling you a liar.
You try this. Start with a piece of flat machined or ground steel.Maybe 1 or 2 in by 3 or 4 in. Doesn't matter much. Ideally,put it on a surface plate and use a height gauge and a .0001 indicator just to see what you have. No surface plate? Use your micrometer.
Then you do your best to polish the whole thing to look like a fine,optical mirror.Not a carnival mirror,but a non-distorted,accurate mirror.
Now go back and use your indicator again,or your mic. You WILL see a measurable change.Nothing else is possible.