 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: Tony F
Date: 2018-08-04 21:48
Several times on this forum there has been discussion about how best to deal with cruddy nickel-plated and German silver keywork. I've variously used mechanical buffing (laborious and fiddly) and hand polishing with various metal polishes (laborious, dirty, fiddly). I've read in this forum about using a bath cleaning process using aluminium foil, baking soda and hot water, so I decided to try it.
I used a ceramic baking tray about 20 cm (8 inches) by 15 cm ( 6 inches), lined it with aluminium foil and rolled up torn pieces of foil into 2.5 cm (1 inch) balls. I poured in 100gm (3.5 Oz) of baking soda and filled the tray with 1 litre of boiling water, stirring until all dissolved.
I placed the extremely cruddy dismounted keywork from an old Leblanc Normandy in the tray, making sure it was completely submerged. After half an hour the foil had started to blacken slightly and there was a light smoky deposit on the keywork. I removed the keywork, rinsed under hot water and lightly went over it with a fine wire wool kitchen pad. The result after only 10 minutes was bright untarnished keywork, ready for a repad.
I wouldn't try this with silver-plated keywork, but on nickel silver and nickel plated keywork it was highly efficient. Your mileage may vary.
Tony F.
Post Edited (2018-08-05 01:56)
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Author: kdk ★2017
Date: 2018-08-04 23:54
So, is there a corollary method for silver plate?
Karl
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Author: Tony F
Date: 2018-08-05 00:31
One of the wipe-on/wipe-off liquid cleaners might work. They're supposed to not remove silver, only corrosion and crud.
Tony F.
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Author: Steven Ocone
Date: 2018-08-05 17:56
I frequently use this method for silver plated keys and silver flute bodies. I never considered it for nickel plate. It is less toxic than silver dips and less abrasive than silver polish. For heavily tarnished silver I sometimes do it twice. I'm not a chemist but I believe it reverses the oxidation process. There is sometimes a faint sulfur smell in the air. It is an exothermic reaction so it is very quick.
Steve Ocone
Post Edited (2018-08-06 17:19)
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