I don't know what 'look' you want,,but a matted soft look on bare steel is easy to get with scotchbrite.
The maroon or grey colored scotchbrite are about the right grades and leaves a nice finish. Grey is the finer IIRC.
There is a White color and finer yet but I've never had much luck & use for it in metal polishing.

Use it dry and it will leave you with one finish. Use it with a little oil and you will get a slightly different effect with a bit more gloss and burnished effect..

If you polish with the stuff in non-directional motion you won't have any grit/grain lines to speak of. That'll especially be true if you are starting out on a surface that has an extremely high machine polished surface like you probably have from a nickle plating job.

The other thing that can get you there is a fine wire wheel at med speed used to polish & burnish the surface. Use it with the part surface covered with a thin layer of oil. That allows the wires to slide on the surface and not bite into it.
Leaves a nice smooth burnished finish and again non direction with no grit lines. Don't use a lot of pressure, just let the wire wheel swipe over the surface.
Most any oil will do from 3n'1 to motor oil to WD40.
I use this alot in rust blue prep before the actual bluing.


Probably not much response from the plating shops as they might still be closed up due to Covid rules.
I hadn't thought of that when I posted originally.