I have a Steintod pistol from the late 19th century that I'm going to try to sell on GB. It has a little surface rust but not much. Should I try to Flitz/polish the rust off, or is it worth more with the "patina" of years? What says the here accumulated wisdom?

__________________
I used to be disgusted..

I've never heard of such a gun. How does it work? Can you post a picture?

I think collectors would ask that you leave it alone. If they want it cleaned up they may prefer to do it themselves.

I'll post pics later. This is a single shot (detachable barrel) self defense pistol manufactered in Germany before WW1. It fired a 12mm gas cartrifdge containing irritating tobacco "gas".

sent from my phone 'cause I'm too lazy to walk to the laptop..

__________________
I used to be disgusted..

It's "scheintod" and means "the appearance of death". They're an interesting group of self-defense items. Kindofan early version of our current pepper spray. Some shot pepper and others tear gas of sorts.
I've never heard of one with "knock-out" gas.......

__________________
Dean
SWCA #680 SWHF #446

I'd really like to see pictures of that. Who knew?

__________________
Oh well, what the hell.

Interesting, a three-barreled derringer:

Lock, Stock, and History, The Scheintod Gas Pistol, Made after WWI in...

http://www.guns.com/2010/11/30/germa...-spicier-past/

Mine is a single shot. Any other opinions on cleaning?

sent from my phone 'cause I'm too lazy to walk to the laptop..

__________________
I used to be disgusted..

OK, the obligatory bad cell phone pics:
in the third pic, you can see the detent for barrel removal.

__________________
I used to be disgusted..