I picked up what appears to be a good condition 1874 Gras bayonet made by Steyr in 1877. Blade is fairly bright with some slight greying which I'm not too concerned about. No major pitting but did have some light rust in a couple of spots I was able to remove with very fine steel wool. I expect the blade would polish with the same steel wool but not something I'm inclined to do.

My main question is about the brass end. It is dark. Most of these I've seen have had the brass polished. With a slight patina, they look great, bright shiny brass not so much. I do realize the brass will tarnish fairly quickly but haven't decided if this is something I should just leave alone. It doesn't look bad as it is.

Is polishing the brass on these a no-no or considered normal cleaning and maintenance?

And if polishing, I don't want to hurt the wood in the process so what would the correct proceedure be? I used to always use a product called brasso on brass when I had to polish things for the Army.
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