 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: clarnibass
Date: 2006-05-26 08:12
I'm teaching myself how to repair, and I'm doing an overhaul to an alto clarinet. The clarinet is really old and very dirty. Is there a way to clean the keys (at least most of the dirt) without doing it individually by hand on each key? For example just putting them in some liquid that will clean them.
I don't necessarily want to make the keys shiny like new, but just remove the really disgusting dirt away.
I saw people say that a buffing machine (I'm not sure what buffing means) is the best and easiest but I don't have that yet. I understand that removes a little of the metal too.
Thanks.
Post Edited (2006-05-26 08:32)
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Author: tictactux ★2017
Date: 2006-05-26 09:38
I have an ultrasonic cleaner and it does amazing things. It will remove dirt (ie crud and all that stuff) but leave the patina (sounds better than tarnishing) intact. Of course, the pads are history after such a treatment.
I'd advise against "cooking" silver keys in salt water with a wad of aluminium foil; the keys will shine like new but will have lost some microns of the plating after that.
After that you'll need to work with your sterling cutlery polishing cloth. A possible alternative is an electric toothbrush with the smoothest toothpaste (or a similar polishing agent) you can get (check for stuff that has "ultra sensitive" etc on it). Try it with the register key first...
--
Ben
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Author: Chris P
Date: 2006-05-26 09:45
Do you know if the keys are nickel plated, silver plated or unplated?
You can wash the crud off them, use a tub of hot water and washing up liquid to remove all the dirt (and a scrubbing brush - or a large paint brush with the bristles cut short), or even boil them all up in the same solution for about 30 mins, then rinse them and dry them.
Buffing is done with a machine polisher - it looks a bit like a grinding wheel used for sharpening knives but has fabric mops instead, these are used with a polishing compound (tripoli or rouge) and it's not an easy thing to do to begin with, and polishing to a high finish can be achieved with a buffing machine. Though care must be taken as it can also remove plating or remove the metal you're polishing - look at a relacquered sax and you'll probably find the engraving has been worn out due to being buffed too hard.
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Author: Gordon (NZ)
Date: 2006-05-26 15:35
Cleaning can be done by hand brushing (soft brush for silver!) with solvents (one possibility being water plus detergents), or with an ultrasonic cleaner, which is expensive if it has an appropriate wave-form, frequency, etc which are not damaging.
Removal of tarnish, and polishing, can be done by hand (very time consuming) or by buffing. Buffing done with care is the same as hand polishing but a lot quicker. However if it is done carelessly, it can remove significant metal, bend metal parts, throw keys around the room, and seriously damage the operator. A buffing machine is potentially quite dangerous.
An alternative, very effective method of polishing:
http://www.krausmusic.com/polishin/polishsy.htm
I imagine it is pretty expensive.
Incidentally you will learn quite a bit about repairs by reading right through the Kraus site. Kraus is a major supplier of repair gear, but supplies only to repair businesses.
http://www.krausmusic.com/index.htm#HomeIndex
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