Thanks everyone. I might leave this particular blade unpolished, because it does add to the rustic look of the knife, but I'll definately use the methods you described on other knives.

Tony; it's a general blacksmithin class, but the instructor is pretty loose on what he allows us to do. He knows how to make knives, so he showed me how to do it. As a matter of fact, the knife wasn't even my project for the semester; I'd spent almost all of that time making a traditional viking helmet. I actually made the blade on the very last day of class!