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 Nickel Key Tarnish Removal?
Author: jonathan.wallaceadams 
Date:   2017-11-15 18:16
Attachment:  20171115_081142.jpg (1922k)

On my Ab throat key and all of my right hand pinky keys. I wipe my keys off with the Leblanc Nickel polishing cloth after all uses and this is still a problem. How do i remove it?

Just an aspiring student.
Buffet Tradition
Mpc.: Hawkins "G", Barrel: Moba, Reeds: Reserve 3.5+

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 Re: Nickel Key Tarnish Removal?
Author: fskelley 
Date:   2017-11-15 19:20

Those Leblanc cloths are the best I've found, and I tried a lot of other products. They do lose their mojo after a while though, have to keep buying new ones. I cut each into 4 or 6 smaller pieces to use 1 at a time so they last longer.

Once in a while I use an old (or new) one like a shoe polish strip to gently buff stubborn areas. Just be careful. You will eventually develop a safe repeatable process. Nickel tarnish is stubborn, but I (finally!) defeated mine.

However, we do vary in how our perspiration affects nickel. Some of us have a real issue- my own problem seems not to be all that bad.

Stan in Orlando

EWI 4000S with modifications

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 Re: Nickel Key Tarnish Removal?
Author: Chris P 
Date:   2017-11-15 20:40

Stick some masking tape on the tarnished keys and leave it overnight.

Years back I had to overhaul an old nickel plated Adler soprano sax and I stuck some parts to the body with masking tape to keep them safe (as it didn't have a case). When I removed the tape, the area immediately beneath it was bright in contrast to the rest of the body which had tarnished dull grey. See if that works - there's no harm in trying and if it does, then that's a bonus.

The only successful way to remove the dull grey tarnish on nickel plate (as it's not going to be easy to polish it with polishing cloths or most metal polishes) is to machine polish it with several grades of buffing compound.

I'd recommend you don't use any liquid polish on clarinet keys as it's easily overdone and can get into places where it shouldn't, like getting on pads, into toneholes and worse still, getting into the key barrels and causing the keys to bind up solid.

The dull grey tarnish is only cosmetic, but when you decide to have your clarinet overhauled (and that's completely stripped down and rebuilt), then the keys can all be buffed up to a bright shine whilst all the pads and key corks have been removed.

Former oboe finisher
Howarth of London
1998 - 2010

The opinions I express are my own.

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 Re: Nickel Key Tarnish Removal?
Author: Steven Ocone 
Date:   2017-11-16 02:36

Sunshine polishing cloth.

Steve Ocone


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