 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: Heather
Date: 2009-06-06 15:16
Which do you prefer - nickel plating, silver plating, or gold plating?
What are the advantages of silver or gold plating?
Lastly, is it really true that you cannot mix hard rubber ebonite body clarinets with silver plated keys as it is chemically unstable?
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Author: jeeves
Date: 2009-06-06 15:29
From a chemistry perspective, gold is very low on the activity series and, therefore, is very difficult to oxidize. Silver is more readily oxidized and nickel is even more readily oxidized, so I think gold would last longest without tarnishing. You should probably also take into account the softness of each metal and how readily they scratch (and at which purity).
As for the second part, if the rubber is vulcanized, it has sulfur in it, and sulfur tarnishes silver, so it would make sense not to have that combination, but I'm not exactly sure.
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Author: jparrette
Date: 2009-06-06 17:43
Bear in mind that plating your keys will also involve a complete overhaul, since all the keys need to be stripped of all pads and corks and re-fit. This, plus the cost of plating will run well upwards of $1,000 from any decent repair tech. Also, many repairmen don't like to plate posts, because of the extra work of removing and re-installing them.
All that being said, gold feels great, lasts a long time if it's properly done, and doesn't tarnish nearly as much as silver. Personally I don't like the feel of nickel at all.
John Parrette
CLARION MUSICAL SERVICES
john@clarionmusical.com
914-805-3388
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Author: William
Date: 2009-06-06 18:55
FYI--Last summer, I had a vintage R13A silver plated, keys and posts, for a bit less than $500.00. I also have a R13Bb which I had gold plated some twenty years ago and it still looks like new.
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Author: Chris P
Date: 2009-06-06 21:58
Both gold plate and nickel plate are applied thin - gold plate may not be applied any more than 1-3 microns thick due to the cost, and nickel from 5-10 microns at most as nickel is usually applied as an undercoat for silver to be plated onto due to its smoothness.
Silver plate is usually applied from between 10 and 25 microns thick - and the way I've heard it generally being said that it's one micron of plating per year of the instrument's life. So if having silver plating done, if you specify 25 microns, that will be the minimum amount of silver plated to the keywork. The plating may be thicker at the ends, and usually at free ends once the keys are all wired up to be put into the plating tanks.
Silver has a great feel and appearance, but both silver and nickel can cause allergic reactions in some people, and nickel allergies are more common than silver. Gold is best for anyone with metal allergies as is rhodium plating - and like gold it's usually applied thinly over silver plate.
In any case if you decide to have an instrument plated, you will need the instrument completely stripped down of all keys and fittings, any scratches or marks in the metal cleaned up, everything polished up, degreased and then plated, and after plating the keys and screws will probably all need to be refitted in most cases due to the amount of plating making the keys and fittings that bit larger than they once were.
Former oboe finisher
Howarth of London
1998 - 2010
The opinions I express are my own.
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Author: Gordon (NZ)
Date: 2009-06-07 15:53
Chris wrote "nickel is usually applied as an undercoat for silver to be plated onto due to its smoothness. "
Are you sure?
I know that copper plating is commonly used beneath silver. We see it on keys of some brands of clarinet when the silver wears through.
But I've not heard of nickel being used. (Then again, there's a lot I don't know!)
Jeeves Wrote about tarnish resistance as a result of position in the "activity series". Another consideration is that the further apart the base metal and the the plated metal are in this series, (assuming at least some porosity of the plating, and in the presence of an electrolyte in the form of perspiration) the more likely that pitting of the surface will occur from "galvanic corrosion". This has been reported by technicians as reasonably common on gold plated embouchure plates on flutes.
As for the second part, if the rubber is vulcanised, it has sulphur in it, and sulphur tarnishes silver, so it would make sense not to have that combination, but I'm not exactly sure.
Heather wrote "Lastly, is it really true that you cannot mix hard rubber ebonite body clarinets with silver plated keys as it is chemically unstable?"
I don't know about "chemically unstable". Ebonite (i.e. hard rubber) has been used for some clarinet bodies, but also very commonly for mouthpieces. Yes, it is vulcanised with sulphur during manufacture, and as it ages, and the surface gradually breaks down, it tends to turn green, and give off that characteristic sulphur smell. Some formulations of hard rubber are worse than others. Sunlight seems to be the most damaging agent.
Sulphurous vapours tarnish silver, gradually turning it black. That is the tarnish on silverware and silver jewellery that most people are familiar with. However this is only on the very surface of the silver. If left, it actually protects the underlying surface from further tarnish. If polished away, the new shiny surface will again tarnish, so by repeated polishing we gradually remove silver.
Hard rubber mouthpieces can be kept in a pouch made from a fabric that has fine particles of silver embedded in it. The particles "use up" the sulphurous vapours before the vapours reach the rest of the clarinet....
http://www.silverguard.com/c-6-pacific-silvercloth.aspx
Other products, such as 3M Anti-tarnish strips, and probably a much better product sold by Doctors Products, simply absorb unwanted vapours from the air while the clarinet is inside the case.
http://www.doctorsprod.com/store/comersus_viewItem.asp?idProduct=34
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