leaky heads gaskets, I'm losing it!

a brass wire wheel is much softer than cast iron. On Aluminum is a no-no. Get a piece of thick glass or a granite floor tile and glue a piece of 600 grit on its shiny face, nice and flat. Run this over the gasket plane a few times nice and easy and see if any area is getting missed, there is your low spot.

True, it's softer, but ape hands like mine still dig trenches in iron with them. It's less likely to happen, but it can definitely still happen. A low force scraping with lots of repetitions can be an amazing force.