Step 1: The blade. Done.
Step 2: The scales...

I've hosted the pix over here. I have intermittent pics between sandings as well, but didn't post those.
Lemme know what you guys think so far I wasn't going for a full fledged restoration, just something to learn on.

I recieved 3 ebay specials in the mail that day, and needed one to start off on. The begall had the most wear on it so I chose that one. Thanks to vlad and Bill's excellent advice about removing pins, I had no problem seperating the blade from the scales. The scales are nothing special, but were dirty so I cleaned them off and then got to work on the blade.

I started off by taping the edge of the blade (to prevent ruining it) and then taking 180grit sanding discs to the razor with my dremel on low speed. The stuff works fast to remove minor staining and corrosion, but damn, they don't seem to cover more than a few sq. cm before needing a fresh one. I didn't remove all the pitting and/or staining (as is evident by the finished pictures), but I figured I'd move ahead anyway.

From here on in it was all hand sanding, and more hours than I care to remember of it. Starting with 600 grit then 1000 grit, both thoroughly. Then about half as much 1500 and then carefully and thoroughly with 2000. I then finished it off with some 5µ paper from Lee Valley. From some prior experience, this stuff produces one nice finish, but takes 3 times as long as any other paper and twice as much of it.

I found it tough to sand the face of the blade. Being a convexed area, I can't just use a flat surface to sand it on. Need to find a better way of getting in there.

After that... too damn achey from half a full day of sanding so I went to bed

The next day I recieved the scale kit that I ordered from vlad (damn they're sexy!) as well as a sample of MAAS and simichrome he was kind enough to include. I started polishing the blade using my dremel buffing bits on the lowest speed. Tested MAAS on one side and simichrome on the other. Vlad had told me that he prefers simichrome for polishing metal over MAAS and after using them both, I agree with him. They both seemed to be able to achieve a comparible finish, but the simichrome did it faster and with less of it. I went over the entire razor with polish, but I didn't go over as thorougly as to remove all the striations left from the 2000grit & 5µ papers. There was still some stains left on the blade so there was no point in going all the way with the polish.

I figured it would probably be best to not hone the blade until I had it in the scales, but I couldn't resist and busted out the waterstones anyway
Spent some time between a japanese 1k and the norton 4k to form the bevel, and then about the same on the 8k and 4k. After I had it passing the HHT I finished it up on the pasted paddle from tony. Once I was done with that, it was nice and keen... Can't wait to give 'er a test shave. D'oh! Need scales first

For some reason the point of the blade didn't seem to achieve the keeness that the heel would. It was close, but not truly uniform. Not sure why. Could be my honing technique, but I made sure that the point of the blade was in contact with the hone. Could also be that the edge of the blade isn't uniform either; the heel end being thicker from spine to edge than the point.

Ohh well, I can figure that out later. I did achieve my goal of learning in the process though.
Some things I learned:
-I need some sandpaper between 180 and 600 grit
-water spots and staining go deeper than I thought
-180 grit sanding discs remove less steel than I thought
-a mirror polish is sexy
-don't HHT over the hone, it's a pain to get little hair bits off of a smooth wet surface
-vlad is insane for doing this multiple times
-I will go insane soon

Well, that's it for now. Next up I need to make some scales. I'll wait for the restoration CD from bill to arrive first though.