I try to wax so that I'm not doing much finishing. Obviously it doesn't work out every time though lol. I use a large tapered carbide at the lathe to remove flash and reduce base thickness. I'll throw in an egg-shaped carbide to round out borders and clean up any thickness I may have missed, especially in the palate. Then at the handpiece I like to use a tapered carbide to open up any frena, then a fine cross-cut tapered bur to refine any gingival rolls and root eminences (I like the anatomy to be subtle and not over embellished). Then I pumice on high with a buff wheel and felt cone on palate and borders. Pumice on slow with a bristle wheel on interproximal areas and hard to reach scratches. Then polish slow with rouge, and then high with some high shine or paste. No stippling with bent burs.. it just looks like scratches. Patients and doctors don't like it. If I want to break up the surface texture a bit then I'll tap some GC optiglaze on with a brush beforehand. I steam any remaining polish off of the teeth (usually a little in the interproximal areas),brush the surface with soap and water. Then seal it up and deliver!
I have used those soft grey rubber points and they're nice too, but like the scotchbrites, they don't last long. I've found that the pumice does all the work in smoothing out surface roughness just as well as anything else, and it lasts a lot longer.