Finding the diamond in the rough...
Here's one of the little guys fresh out of the mold - you can see the flash on the table and on the tip that needs to be ground away to get to the real work.
Here I am hand filing the tip - in a perfect world it would match the shape of the reed you plan to use. What I have found is that different reeds have ever so slightly different shapes. I try to make mine conform to Rico reeds. This is to prevent MADNESS... ;)
At this point I measure the tip width so that when I sand down the face, it leaves some meat instead of coming to a pointy sharp edge. This is done for durability as a sharp tip is easily damaged. The tip is all finished at this stage because once we start facing the mouthpiece, the tip is my "0 point"; meaning if we face a piece, then change the tip, the facing is also changed and must be reworked completely. - So you want to reface your own piece? hee hee
On the some models I use a Dremel tool to hone out the the chamber and then sand it. This makes a nice full, round sound and let's you pump a lot of air through it. This chamber is also good for older (pre-1945) instruments as they have some tuning issues with smaller chamber mouthpieces. Of course, YMMV (your mileage may vary...) I do the chamber work at this stage because if I slip with the Dremel and mar the facing, I can throw it away without having spent hours on the facing. It is unlikely, but accidents do happen...