Satin finish with soldered guard

[BJohnson]

Being relatively new to knife making, all of my blades have been mirror polished. I would like to make some with a satin finish, but I'm worried that I'll be in trouble when I solder the guard on. After cleaning up the excess solder, I would probably have to go over the blade again near the solder joint. I've been using the slot guard method. I know some makers use JB weld instead of solder, but my guards are not always a perfect fit, and I don't want the imperfections in the joint to show. Solder helps hide the imperfections. My main question is: is it possible to re-apply a satin finish on the blade after the guard has been soldered on? If not, then perhaps someone has some tips for getting a nice perfect fit on the guard without a mill.

[reefera4m]

Being a relative newbie myself I certainly don't know all the ways to to achieve a 'satin' finish but the ones I've seen done as well as the ones I've done have been achieved with 400 grit wet/dry sandpaper used perpendicular to the blade. When I've silver sodered the guards (brass) to the tang, I then just apply a piece of tape to the guard, scrape off whatever soder I was unable to wipe off with a flattened piece of brass welding rod. Then I glue a strip of 400 grip sandpaper to a 1" or 2" wide length of flat stock (1 foot long, 1" or 2" wide, 1/8" thick) and re-finish the area next to the guard as needed.

If there is a better way, I'd be more than a little interested - anything to save some labor!