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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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