Can you post pictures of the knife? Sometimes an aggressive bead blast can "hide" slight imperfections. Or, you could see about contacting a knife maker than can regrind the blade. Josh from Razor Edge Knives used to do regrinds, not sure if he still does or not, but you could reach out to him.
Also, you are asking for a fair (actually alot) amount of work for "fairly cheap". Not sure how that is going to work out for you.