Klarinet Archive - Posting 000149.txt from 2002/12

From: Bill Hausmann <bhausmann1@-----.net>
Subj: Re: [kl] Silver Keys, was Re: [kl] Benefit of taking time off
Date: Sat, 7 Dec 2002 19:37:10 -0500

At 05:45 AM 12/7/2002 -0700, you wrote:
>I know nothing about the chemistry of silverplating. The new Buffets have
>a much brighter silverplate than the instruments manufactured a couple of
>decades ago. The silverplate on the older instruments have a darker sheen
>(uh oh), but stand up to the polishing cloth, less prone to the swirl
>marks I mentioned in a previous e-mail that has affected my new instrument.
>
>What process, short of buffing, can I employ to rid myself of these swirl
>marks, if any? It's not critical. Only I notice it . . . but I treat my
>clarinets like they are a gift from heaven . . .
>
>Can someone inform me of the various characteristics of silverplate.

Frankly, I think you will have to learn to live with the swirl marks, which
eventually will be "overwritten" with even more swirl marks to the point
that they disappear and are replaced with an overall patina a bit duller
than the shiny new silver plate but altogether appropriate to silver plate
that has been used. If you buff them off, it will only remove plating, and
the newly exposed plating underneath will quickly pick up the same sort of
swirl marks. It is entirely possible that they are now using a slightly
different plating material or process than they did before. I know that,
in our store, silver plated instruments from different manufacturers often
look different from each other and do tarnish at different rates.

Bill Hausmann

If you have to mic a saxophone, the rest of the band is TOO LOUD!

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