Polishing Bearing Cones

You'll probably think I'm crazy for doing this, and that I should just go buy new parts. Sometimes that just isn't an option. My Schwinn Traveler had some very worn bearing cones (maybe the wheel was submerged, and then ridden for a while without grease to protect the bearings):

It was bad enough that I would hear a very noticeable rumbling sound if I spun the wheel off the ground. I was debating re-lacing the wheel to a new hub, but I thought I'd try this instead. I pulled the axle out, and tightened the bearing cone and locknut on one end of it. Then I used a drill to spin the axle while I held sandpaper up to the bearing surface:

I used several different grits, starting with coarse emery cloth, then 400 grit, then 1000. It took a while to clean up the pitting since these cones are made of pretty hard steel. My last step was polishing the cones with my fancy metal polish:

Now they look like Deore XT bearing cones:

The wheel spins quietly now, so I guess this worked. Time will tell if they start pitting again (probably not, I used some decent grease). If the bearing cups inside the hub were badly pitted too then I would just replace the hub, but in this case they were fine. Plus I didn't have to spend any money. Cheers.