Polish and Etching help

[Rescue#341]

Hey all,

I am new to knife making and had a few questions I was hopeing y'all could help with. What im trying to do is make a decorative kitchen style knife for my wife for a cosplay she's doing soon. It will basically be a unedged beveled kitchen knife with some painted etchings on the blade. My questions are,

1) what is the best way of hand polishing a forged knife? I unfortunately don't have any kind of power grinder or sander just hand tools

2) I am wanting to etch the blade with the method using nail varnish on the blade, Etching the design In the varnish and then holding it in a salt water bath while hooked to a battery. I was wanting to also paint the design. Do y'all have any ideals on this? I was thinking after Etching the design with the salt water and battery painting over the design while the varnish is still on and then removing the varnish. My only concern is removing the varnish with out removing the paint.

3) I am really new to forging and haven't made a knife yet I have made machetes for some neighbors but no accutal knifes yet. I've read a lot of stuff and watched some YouTube videos and feel Ok enough to try and see what happens. Any tips you guys could give would be much appreciated

PS my iPad won't let me search the forum I get a access forbidden error so I am sorry if any of this has been asked before

Thanks

 

[john april]

1) hand sanding with a hard block. starting with draw filing will save some sandpaper
2) i am not sure where the paint and varnish comes into play. they are considered " resists". wherever the paint /varnish is , will not get etched.
3) keep watching different forging videos on you tube, a video is worth a thousand words of explanation and tips.