I recently had a crash and gained a few scratches on my brake lever (see photo)
How can I remove these scratches as they look bad and I can feel on my fingers when I ride.
Thanks 
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1That’s very normal and harmless wear. They usually look much worse after some time simply from leaning against walls. Find sandpaper is probably enough to smooth the worst burs.– MichaelAug 3, 2021 at 14:29
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I guess that's "fine" sandpaper– user59073Aug 3, 2021 at 15:41
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2Go easy on the sandpaper. Just enough to remove any unpleasant sensations for your hand.– Daniel R HicksAug 3, 2021 at 23:58
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3“there is no problem so bad you can’t make it worse.”– mattnzAug 4, 2021 at 2:20
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2 Answers
Hard to tell exactly how deep they are from the photo, but they don't look too bad. I would take the bike to a store that sells cosmetics and pick up the 2-3 shades of nail polish that look the closest match.
Once you get home, sand off any rough edges with some very fine sandpaper and mix nail polish to get the colour you want before finally painting over the scratches.
You can first sand or file off anything that's protruding from the handle, then use sandpaper to get any major roughness off. You probably only need to start off with 220 grit for a few seconds, then go to finer and finer grit. Your local hardware or home improvement stores will have a variety to choose from. Likely, you don't need to go further than 1000 or 200 grit.
After that, if it's smooth to the touch but not to the eye, you can use buffing compounds and a buffing wheel to smooth it out further. (That is, if you have a drill or rotary tool, like a Dremel). This is if it's actually metal, like the aluminum (or possibly stainless steel) it looks like from the pic. Just make sure the polishing compound and wheel is designed for the material you are using it on and of a high enough grit count that you don't scratch the handle further.
If the handle isn't metal, it's steel but not stainless, or you just can't get it smooth enough for your desires, you can paint it. You can try color matching or just change the color to suit your desires. Or if it's bare steel, you can put on just a clearcoat to prevent rusting. However, if it's stainless steel, you probably don't need to do that.
