I'm definitely satisfied with the pitting removal - I don't need it to be a perfect blade. I think too much metal/detail would be lost to get to that point.

Just to clarify, the dremel tool was only used with medium hardness felt wheels for polishing with jewelrs rouge - all of the sanding was done by hand. Also, this time I had a 30x jewelers loupe to examine the blade each time I made a pass in sanding it down. I'd highly recommend getting one, it really helped to make sure I was getting the progress I wanted.