abrasives compounds for polishing handsaw plates?

[Mike Allen1010]

I am restoring some old hand saws. Typically to remove the existing rust and corrosion I hand sand the plates using wet/dry silicon carbide sandpaper and mineral oil for lubrication through 600 grit.

I want to experiment with some buffing wheel's and different grades of compounds to see if I can achieve a mirror bright surface on the old spring steel plates.I'm not sure I want to do this routinely, but I would like to experiment with a couple saw plates to see how long it will take and what kind of a finish I can achieve.

I have an assortment of some sewn buffing wheels and a Sissel buffing wheel with the following range of buffing compounds: black, brown, green, white, red and blue.I'm not exactly sure what the grit sizes of these buffing compounds but I think this is roughly in order of from coarse to fine?

Any suggestions about what compound/wheel type I should start with and what others I should use in sequence to get the best results?

Thanks, Mike