Keeping brass spacers even with wood around them

[FatFrumos]

Greetings!  First time poster here.  I got into knifemaking about a year ago, have been making them after work.  This is my sixth knife, that I made for my mom. 

In this knife it was the first time that I put multiple brass spacers with wood between them.  During the final handle polish (I went up to 1000 grit), it turned out that sandpaper works more aggressively on the wood then on the brass and so I got slight ridges on the handle where the brass is.  Are there any tips or tricks on how to make sure that they are even with wood around them?

Thank you!

Luka

 

[ThomasPowers]

Hand sand with a rigid hard block.  No flexibility!

[Buzzkill]

Even with that you have to do it right.  You'd want to sand perpendicular to your handle with the focus on the harder materials.   If you sand in line with the handle you can still get the low spots on either side of the harder material.  I use a section of half-round file that I ground flat past the teeth for hand sanding flat surfaces.  It doesn't have any flex, but I still have to take care to keep from tilting in any direction to maintain a flat surface. 

When I do something similar to your handle, I do as much shaping as possible on my belt grinder and only do the high grits (little stock removal and mostly polishing) by hand to decrease or eliminate the effect you're talking about.

[FatFrumos]

Thank you!  I'll give it a try.