Ron,

The ferric chloride etch is essentialy etching off the burnished surface and achieving the same thing you would have with the stones. Stones are easier to control though as the acid sometimes wants to etch different areas according to how clean they are, what steel they are and so on.

I would venture to say that going higher than 320 with sandpaper is counterproductive due to the increased burnishing the higher grits produce. No reason to go beyond 320 with the stones either though.

Either way, it will be interesting to see if it makes a difference. I am sure it will. Those damn swords would rust so fast. I had one returned from a photographer that had a print quality finger print rusted on it. It was a honest mistake, but I told him there was no way he could deny it was his fault....I had proof that would hold up in court :-)