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RE: "Pot Metal" Keys

Author: Dee
Date: 1999-09-24 04:21

Paul, you really ought to take time and look things up not speculate. Much of this stuff *is* documented. Many clarinets at all levels have reasonably good quality metals in the keys. "German Silver", actually a nickel alloy, is frequently used. Some manufacturers in the past (even on high quality instruments) didn't even plate the keys when using this alloy as it can be buffed to a nice soft shine. While there are many variants of this, the manufacturers will tell you what the keys are made of although not the exact alloy formula.

"Pot metal" is also a very specific alloy and a specific process. It is not a lower grade of the material commonly used. It did happen to be inexpensive. It was not a particularly good choice for clarinet keys. Not being a metallurgist, I don't happen to know the alloy but again it can be looked up in the reference works that metallurgists use.

Speculation of this type can lead people astray and then this information gets quoted as a "fact".

As far as gold plating the keys goes, the layer of plating is thin enough that the cost differential due just to the plating isn't as great as many people think. Although I no longer remember the exact figures, when I had the keys on my daughter's clarinet replated, they quoted chrome, nickel, silver, gold, and platinum. I don't happen to like the look of gold on black so I chose chrome (didn't want to have to deal with the tarnish for nickel or silver and the platinum was a little spendy for an intermediate quality horn).

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