Shreckmeister,
I hesitate to say the brass parts included with Jim's kit were "rough cast". They are excellent investment cast parts....much smother than a typical sand casting. So, to answer your question, I did do a little file work on the parts, then scraped them, and then used the sanding sticks to finish most of the polishing. I do also use a muslin wheel and tripoli polishing compound on curved surfaces but do not use tripoli on surfaces that are supposed to have sharp features / edges or flat surfaces.
I know others separate the files they use on brass from those they use on steel, etc., but I don't. I use any file I have that is the right shape and cut on any material...gold, silver, brass, wood, steel....whatever. When the file gets dull, I get a new one or sharpen the old one. I don't have enough bench space to have separate files for different materials. The one exception is that, since purchasing the Bahco file, I keep that one just for draw filing barrels.
