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Re: Dulled Clarinet Keys

Author: Chris P
Date: 2020-02-17 03:18

Buffet use a ton of copper plate under the top layer of silver (or nickel) plate which may be the red areas showing where the silver plate has worn off. I've seen that on many Buffets and in some cases the copper has also worn through right down to nickel silver which is the base metal.

You can see how the thick layer of copper plate has built up on the edges of the keywork as all keys with flat surfaces have a hollow look about them where they appear to dip in the centres - that's most obvious if you look at the LH levers and trill keys which have deeper flat-sided keys.

Same thing with pad cups where the plating has gone on thicker around the edges and corners which is why 8.5mm cork or synthetic pads are a better (but still loose) fit in the top joint pad cups compared to the 9mm ones which they should be as the plating has also gone on thick on the inside edges of the pad cups.

They can be opened up to 9mm by grinding out the insides of the pad cups without any risk of the sides becoming thin as there's plenty of silver and copper to be removed before hitting the nickel silver.

Former oboe finisher
Howarth of London
1998 - 2010
The opinions I express are my own.

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