I'm still a newbie on all of this stuff as well, but one thing I've learned about HT & finish, get it as close as possible prior to the HT! Once it's been hardened you will have a lot more work if it's too thick BTE, too rough in finish or not almost "done" as far as shape, drilled holes, finish & general work left to be done. I look at it like painting, the prep is 90% of the job, the actual finish is just a bit of time compared to getting things ready. Not saying you can't reshape & do other stuff later in finer grits, but it's much easier to have it at 95% before doing the hardening whenever possible.
I learned this the hard way on my first D2 blades using a 1x30 HF grinder, cheap belts & thick metal (like being in hell without a handbook, it took forever). They turned out well enough, but it was a giant PITA working on hard D2 with the wrong tools, no experience & poor quality belts. I think as a beginner we tend to want to see things happen quickly, then we pay for it later in the amount of time it takes to actually get the look we want.
