I have soaked that style of scales in the past and zero effect on the pins. I was warned not to buff those scales, manual only on the clean and polish.
Haha! Happily, I had planned to do this all by hand, so no worries there!
I think that's everything I need, except maybe to try to try out that baking soda and CA trick on a chopstick or something just to get a feel for the rate of feed, etc.