See... That's what I wondered about. I am unfamiliar with the bake on stuff, but have done more than a few guns with hot blueing. With blueing, preparation is everything! You could have the best blueing setup in the world, the right mix, the most steady temperatures, but if you get lazy on the prep you will get a nicely colored ugly gun.
Given your assesment, I would assume the bake on stuff is not that thick and that like blueing or parkerizing, a decent polish must first be applied. I still have a buffer and an assortment of professional compounds for prepping the slides I was thinking of, but no tanks anymore. The cold blueing solution mentioned might be appealing to me, but I wanted to try the bake on stuff. If it is really necessary to sand blast, I am less interested because I don't have that equipment either and this is a "project" for my own elucidation and well... fun! Brownell's has other bake on finishes though which may be better suited to decent polishing but without the blasting or park-ing. I just gotta get up early enough to call those guys. I have developed into a real "night owl" and rarely go to bed before 6am or get up until 2 in the afternoon giving me a slim "window of opportunity" for calling them.
Maybe I'll just stay up and call 'em.