Is it possible to achieve that nice circular brushed look as seen on many knobs?

Any automotive refinishing paint store will have the red and grey scotch brite pads. With a plastic or wooden dowel chucked in a drill and the knob pressed on the dowel, spin the drill slowly and press the grey pad against the knob, the red will leave a little heavier brush look to it.
 
The circular finish in the pics are the tooling marks left by the tool bit on the lathe.

But a trick you can try if you can hold the knob lined up with a drill press chuck would be to put something in the chuck that has same diameter or bigger than the knob, on a shank to fit the chuck, and then put a pc of fine sandpaper or scotch brite between them. Apply light pressure and try different speeds to get desired results.

They also sell similar to make the circular patterns on flat sheets of metal.
 
You can get a nice satin finish with the grey Scotchbrite pads. Use oil or the surface can get torn up. Most commercial knobs have a bright turned finish that's hard to duplicate on anything but a CNC lathe with the right aluminum, the right tooling and the right coolant. The brighter the finish, the more resistant to corrosion, but a coat of clear lacquer is usually recommended.
 
Follow up: in the end I just stuck the knob on the end of a drill. With the drill spinning nice and fast I held a piece of 240 grit sandpaper to it, which brought it to a nice shine. Then I switched to 180 grit and held the sandpaper to the face of the spinning knob with a decent amount of force. Looks great.

It might be a tiny bit nicer at a finer grit, but I'm super happy. It took no time or unusual tools
 
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