On Monday, October 27, 2014 10:26:57 AM UTC-7, Leon Fisk wrote:

A friend of mine kind of neglected his stainless revolver a bit too
long and it has developed little rust spots here and there. ...

A gunsmith friend thought bead-blasting it would be the best cure but
the citric acid treatment sounded interesting to me. Neither of us
care to try messing around with nitric acid. Mechanical means, buffing
and such would probably be quite noticeable

Glass-bead-blasting can be quite gentle; I've used it on corroded brass
and plastic, and brittle corrosion products got removed without
any harm to the rest. A piece of charred fiberglass, for instance,
turned into a clean piece of fiberglass with a depression with a
beard of intact glass fibers.

A Dremel tool, with the felt buffer, and some white rouge, would be
my second choice. Appearance may change, but it already has changed,
that's what the rust spots did to you.