perhaps the no sanding person uses wood scrapers to rid the saw marks and blemishes. I bought a set of scrapers from Lee Valley a few years ago, tried them, they do work good leaving the bare wood very smooth. almost a polish appearance.
The downside I found was- takes lots of energy and I never really got the hang of the proper method to use the tool and burnishing the scraper tool to get a good even working edge was not my skill level.