If the blade is in good shape and you get it nice and even with the 500, the other grits should go pretty quickly. The first step takes the longest, take your time and don't leave any marks or scratches for later.
Whatever you do, don't sand back-and-forth. It leaves little swirls or fish-hooks on the surface that are hard to see at first, but will come back and bite your behind when you move up to finer grits. Use your paper wet, and don't try to overuse it; when it gets clogged up get a fresh piece. It seems to help to finish each grit with a few dry passes, with brand new paper.
When you have a nice uniform scratch pattern, it's time to move up a grit. Switch directions between grits so you can tell when the previous pattern is all gone. A magnifying glass really helps. If it looks nice under magnification, it will look even better without it. There are some tutorials on hand-sanding
here.
Some steels just don't take a mirror polish very well. S30V and D2 are notorious for this. Both can take a nice high-satin though. What steels are you going to be working with? Is it a finished blade or one you made from scratch?
Hand-sanding shouldn't kick a lot of dust into the air, and wet-sanding will help that too, but a dust-mask wouldn't hurt. It's a good habit to get into. Keep your work area clean; you don't want "old" grit or steel particles getting onto your blade surface. Be patient and careful, but have fun! Hand-sanding is kind of a zen thing.
