I hit the steel with a wire wheel on the angle grinder when it's red hot - knocks of any scale instantly, smoothes the surface beautifully, and because the metal is hot, it immediately returns to a shiny black. This works with a hand wire brush and elbow grease, too. Then just wax or linseed oil, or the clear coat of your choice, to prevent rust
It's not really suitable for hard-to-reach surfaces, though, but this adds contrast and depth to the work, high surfaces shiny and black, low spots dark grey matt.
Obviously, this doesn’t work with anything that is heat-treated and then polished. Also, when you work the wire wheel over hot steel, it’s really aggressive, and you have to be careful. You quickly loose hard edges, and even smear your touch mark!
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