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I'll third that caution to be careful!
Good call not to unpin it if you don't have to IMHO. Plenty of potential for things to go sideways once you start adding additional steps. Also, since it has the original pins, why not keep them there, right?
Depending on how tightly they are pinned you might be able to get a piece of dental floss in between the blade and scales too. That, together with polish, can help clean up the difficult to reach bits. However, DON'T force it. Any undue pressure can easily crack/break your scales.