A belt sander is a bit harsh. The micro-fine sandpapers used by plastic model hobbyists work much better, and are much less likely to harm your fingers.
I remember reading this trick in the old spy novels, and being a model hobbyist at the time, I had to try it (on one finger, anyway). It worked -- so far as eliminating fingerprints. Of course, back then biometrics was a rather exotic technology, low res, and not in common use.
My experience making balsa wood aircraft indicates that the combination of gluing your fingers to a wing with CA, prying them off, then sanding the glue off was a pretty effective way of getting rid of the fingerprints, on one hand at least.
Do it with two hands and it got very hard to pry the first hand off.
I remember reading this trick in the old spy novels, and being a model hobbyist at the time, I had to try it (on one finger, anyway). It worked -- so far as eliminating fingerprints. Of course, back then biometrics was a rather exotic technology, low res, and not in common use.