Stew Mac makes an excellent tool called the Fret Rocker. it is used to locate high and low frets on your guitar. It is very easy to make one of these tools also. Check out stewmac.com, look at the tool, and see if it is something you can fabricate at home.
I like to use OOOO steel wool for my fret polishing. It works really well. Don't use anything but OOOO grade, as it may be too coarse. Always mask off your fretboard. And here is a mistake I made recently that you should avoid. I was fret polishing my Telecaster with maple neck. I didn't get enough of the masking tape "stickiness" off of the tape before I applied it to the neck to polish the frets. When I removed the tape, I chunked out a small piece of clear finish from fretboard!!!!! Oh Crap!! I am glad that it was my personal guitar, and not a customers. I just did not stick it on my jeans enough before applying it to the neck to make it less tacky. I touched it up, and it looks okay, but it was a stupid mistake on my part. One that will never happen again.

Have you tried any of the "Low tack" tapes like "Frog"?

I just use decoraters masking tape, available from any diy shop. Never had a single problem with it.

Paisely after wirewooling the frets how do you get the scratches out? Do you just play em out or use a rubbing compound?

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Blue painters tape will work. Mike

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The blues ain't nothin but a good man feelin bad.

Just so long as it doesn't pull up some loose neck finish as posted earlier... that's why I suggested the Frog tape.

I especially like the raw neck on my JR tele!

I've sprayed lacquer for 20 years as a cabinetmaker and it won't pull up finish. I promise!!! Mike

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The blues ain't nothin but a good man feelin bad.

OOOO steel wool is so fine that I have not had to polish out any scratches, as there are none. It is so fine that it is recommended by many luthiers to be used to clean rosewood and ebony fretboards. When used in the direction of the wood grain, it produces good results. I personally don't use it on my fretboards, but I have tried it on some really dirty junk guitar fretboards, and it DOES remove all sorts of sweat, dirt and grime. I just don't like the satin finish it leaves behind, as the wood is a lot softer than nickel/silver fret metal. I also use it to remove rust from chrome parts that are in rough shape. I would not use OOOO steel wool on newer parts tho. I use a special chrome polish for that.
Question, is OOOO steel wool the same in the UK as the States???

Yeah we've known of wirewool and its various grades for a good deal of time now. Infact i always thought our engineers invented the stuff during the indistrial revolution. They'd sweep the swarf up from their lathes and use it for polishing of certain metal parts they were making.

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No no and no