 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: Clari
Date: 2003-04-05 03:53
Can someone pls recommend one non-toxic and less abrasive Nickel-plated key polish? I want to polish away those key scratch on my buffet R-13
thanks
Clari
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Author: Mark Pinner
Date: 2003-04-05 05:45
Yamaha make a fairly gentle one. Why not just use a silver polishing cloth of some kind?
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Author: Gordon (NZ)
Date: 2003-04-05 12:18
Any polishing abrasive that is suitable for silver will not be aggressive enough for nickel, which is a considerably harder metal, and an abrasive that can remove scratches from nickel (by removing nickel until the level of the bottom of the scratches is reached (!!) would be much more damaging still to silver.
Silver hardness: HV 25-45
Nickel Hardness HV 65-115
Chrome polishes are probably suitable for nickel. Auto accessory supplies have chrome polishes. "Mothers" is one.
But do you really want to remove that much plating!
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Author: Gordon (NZ)
Date: 2003-04-05 22:10
This is off the top of my inexpert head, and may stand additions and alterations, particularly from an abrasive expert or chemist. (By "base metal" I refer to the metal that is being polished, which would be the plating itself if the object is plated.)
Most polishes are formulated presumably to chemically remove tarnish, and to remove some other contaminants. The tarnish remover will be formulated for a specific metal or range of metals.
A "polish" is likely to also contain an abrasive to assist with the above processes. Ideally that abrasive is not as hard as the metal, and therefore does not remove the metal itself.
The chemicals used to remove tarnish (or restore it back to metal) are in themselves usually quite corrosive, so in many situations they are not suitable. Tarnish is often harder than the base metal, so a compromise may be to include an abrasive to deal with the corrosion, an abrasive that is actually harder than the base metal, in preference to a corrosive chemical.
Any such abrasive will, of course, also remove traces of the base metal. The polish turning black as it is rubbed onto the surface can be a sign that base metal is being removed, because very finely divided metal can appear black.
One of the ways that makes a surface look highly polished is to have all the microscopic scratches all going in the same direction. This can be achieved by buffing, or hand polishing, but the process does involve microscopically scratching the surface, and it is very important that the abrasive in the polish be suitable for the particular base metal. This type of polishing will always remove SOME base metal. It is like sandpapering with super-fine sand paper. It should not be done too often.
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Author: jim lande
Date: 2003-04-07 03:26
Gordon: thank you. Especially "because
very finely divided metal can appear black." I have always wondered why the polish turned black as I rubbed.
I have a nickel plated contra alto. Having seen nickel plating wear through on the keytouches of many instruments, do you recommend clear nail polish or spray varnish or anything else to preserve the metal on the keytouches?
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Author: Gordon (NZ)
Date: 2003-04-07 07:10
There seems to be many materials (including some cork greases) that aid corrosion of nickel, - polyurethane varnish for a start, from my own experience.
So in answer to your question, I don't know. I have searched for more knowledge on the topic of nickel corrosion, and succeeded only in finding more people who had a lot of experience of it, but could shed little light in spite of their own searches.
Several (many?) manufacturers have fallen into the traps that nickel has set, and solutions have proved difficult to find. I have no idea where in the world this sort of specific knowledge may exist.
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Author: BobD
Date: 2003-04-07 15:35
I agree with the above that trying to remove scratches in nickel plating will do more damage than good. Theoretically filling the scratches with something would be more approprate but I can't say what it would be. Replating is the only real solution I know of but that hardly seems appropriate. If it were my horn I'd try some colorless nail polish first to see what would happen. Or maybe even silver color nail polish!
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