 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: Cory
Date: 2002-03-05 21:30
Is there an easy way to tell if a clarinet is nickelplated or silverplated?
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Author: Ken Shaw
Date: 2002-03-05 22:20
Cory -
Nickel plate is very shiny and smooth. Your fingers tend to slide on it. Metal ligatures are nickel or chrome plated.
Silver is -- well, silver looking rather than mirror-like. Looked at from an angle, it may look a little grainy or have thin lines in it. It's a little less smooth than nickel, so your fingers stay in place, particularly on keys where they tend to slip, like the left-hand low F key. However, brand new silver is very shiny and not easy to tell from nickel by the look.
If there's any dullness or tarnish, it's silver
Find friends with nickel and silver plated keys. The feel under your fingers should be fairly obvious.
Best regards.
Ken Shaw
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Author: JMcAulay
Date: 2002-03-05 22:34
Pick a key surface that's pretty large and wipe the key with a paper towel fragment soaked in a weak acid, perhaps vinegar (I've even used pineapple juice). If it's silver, you'll see it darken and tarnish, which should polish right off. If it's a good nickel plate, it shouldn't be affected. Wipe the vinegar off with a wet, then dry, rag or paper towel.
Even though the acid is not very strong, it can really sting. So be careful not to get any of it in an eye, whatever you are using. If you do, rinse the eye with clear water, blinking frequently, for about two minutes. The stinging should be gone. If it isn't, repeat the eye rinse. Check with a doctor if the stinging persists. I know this is the same stuff you would have on your dinner table, but it isn't normally on your hands or fingers, and accidents do happen. Eating or drinking it may be okay, but rubbing your eyes with it is not.
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Author: ron b
Date: 2002-03-06 02:28
It's not eyewash, Diz!
GARGLE IT (after brushing) :]
Give your mouthpiece a shot too
That'll help keep you awake during the ten o'clock news.
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Author: Gordon (NZ)
Date: 2002-03-06 12:46
If it is silver it will polish shinier with 'Silvo' silver polish.
Nickel DOES tarnish - very easily in the presence of some chemicals, eg polyurethane varnish fumes, and when it does so it looks very dull (and rough) indeed.
Silvo will do absolutely nothing to nickel, whether it is tarnished or not.
This test would probably work with any other silver polish that is specified for silver ONLY. Polishes that are specified for silver and nickel will almost certainly be sufficiently abrasive to chew right through silver plating very quickly.
Nickel tarnish is very difficult to remove.
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Author: Mark Pinner
Date: 2002-03-07 10:36
Nickel tarnish comes of easily enough with some different tripoli cakes and rouge. There are other buffing compounds that work as well. Try bright dipping with a phosphoric/ nitric acid solution. Nickel tarnish is removable!
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Author: Gordon (NZ)
Date: 2002-03-07 12:06
Yes, of course, but not easily with household resources.
I was giving a test for silver or nickel plating, not a lesson on specialized overhaul techniques.
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Author: Don Berger
Date: 2002-03-07 17:28
While the above fine discussion of the plating metals and their care is appropriate, unless you know for sure that your keys are actually plated, there is the possibility that they may be solid "nickel-silver" [no silver, a ternary alloy of nickel {about 1/3}, copper and zinc] highly polished, perhaps thinly plastic coated] . These also darken-dull with age and may not respond to tarnish removal except by buffing . Just wanted to mention. Don
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