 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: fuzzystradjazz
Date: 2009-10-14 23:04
I have yet another plating question. I recently aquired a wonderful (hard rubber?) albert system clarinet. The keys look like a highly polished nickle chrome or something like that. The clarinet arrived needing only one pad, and looking reasonably playable other than that. I pulled out my torch and went to task cleaning out the pad cup. Very little heat - just enough to allow me to wipe the old glue out.
As I finished cleaning the cup out, I turned the key over and gasped - the heat/flame had somehow turned the key into a dark burnished brown/red color that does not buff or polish - and very little of the chrome finish remains on that key. Seeing the damage was already done, I placed a little shellac in the cup, heated it, and placed the pad - everything worked fine with no further damage.
Here's the dilema though...I need to replace other pads, reseat one that has come loose from the cup, and do various other tune-ups to the clarinet.
I don't know how to heat the cups without ruining the finish on the entire clarinet (which is an option - looks don't matter to me - I could just burn it all off if necessary). However, I know the plating ads protection as well, and I'd prefer to keep the remaining keys plated. Does anyone know of a finish which would "burn off" the keys so easily? I'm baffled - I've repadded MANY clarinets, and have never run into this before.
As a side note - the clarinet is uniformly brown, with what appears to be very tiny dots (remnants of a clear laquer of some type) - it rubs off with little to no pressure (could possibly even blow it off with a compressor). However, there were a few larger pieces of the clear material under the edge of the thumb rest and a few other points. It was in a "sheet" about 1/2 an inch by one inch, but just cracked and dissenigrated when I touched it - very very very thin and clear stuff, and appears to have coated at least the entire exterior of the clarinet at one time - including the tone holes.
The clarinet plays very well considering it's state, and sounds wonderful - so I'd like to proceed, but I'm not quite sure what I'm dealing with and though maybe one of you would have some ideas.
Thanks!
Fuzzy
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Author: Chris P
Date: 2009-10-15 00:27
Any kind of plating used for woodwinds (nickel, silver, chrome, rhoduim, gold, etc.) shouldn't be affected by heating the key up enough to melt shellac. Are you sure the keys haven't been lacquered (quite possible since it seems the body has been) and the heat has darkened the lacquer?
What kind of torch are you using? Butane torches only discolour metal if the heat is too high or prolonged or there's something on the surface (like a coating of lacquer or dirt and grease) that reacts with the flame, and some spirits used in spirit burners can discolour silver. Candle flames and oil lamps will obviously leave soot deposits on anything they're in contact with.
Former oboe finisher
Howarth of London
1998 - 2010
The opinions I express are my own.
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Author: fuzzystradjazz
Date: 2009-10-15 00:53
Chris,
Thank you so much for the prompt reply!
At your further prompting and confidence/competence with the various platings, I tried once more to polish the key in question. Sure enough - it appears that they must have clear-coated the keys when they coated the body. I'm not sure what they used, but it must have been a LONG time ago. It took a lot of polishing, and much more agressively than usual, but the plating IS fully intact underneath.
I would have never guessed this given the sheer beauty of the keys - they are about the "shiniest" keys I've ever seen.
Now the big question (I'm looking for opinions here)...should I go ahead and burn the coating on all the keys? Should I burn the coating then polish them or leave them brownish/red to match the clarinet's color? Should I just heat the ones I need to heat and leave them colored?
Thanks again,
Fuzzy
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