 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: crelias11
Date: 2020-07-01 23:56
With covid hitting I put my clarinet away March 1st with the tarnish paper. I opened the case to show a friend today and to my dismay the silver keys have turned blueish. Polishing cloth does nothing. The clarinet is 6 months old. What do I do? It's unlikely I'll be playing anytime soon but I hope there is a fix?
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Author: Paul Aviles
Date: 2020-07-03 07:29
Given the color of discoloration I would say what you have there is a nickel plating. My guess is that the bluish discoloration is on the places where your fingers touch the keys while playing.
The fix for preventing this in the future is easy. You take a 100% cotton flannel cloth (purchase a small swath at any fabric store; cut to size) and wipe off the keys each day when you put your clarinet to bed for the night.
You can actually polish the discoloration off but it does remove a modicum of plating whenever you do that so if you should have this happen again just make sure you only polish once ever six months (or greater time in between). DO NOT polish regularly.
What you require to get the job done is a rouge polishing cloth (red). They are bit harder to find these days and are a bit more pricey than the chemical clothes (grey, yellow, blue, etc) but should be available at a number of better jewelry stores (or the internet).
https://polymerclay.com.au/27x20cm-fabulustre-double-metal-polishing-cloth-with-rouge
....................Paul Aviles
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Author: crelias11
Date: 2020-11-04 02:18
I have a Ubel signature clarinet silver keys. Had them cleaned of all tarnish by repairman in May. Because of Covid not playing it. I removed mouthpiece from the case, put silver tarnish papers in case and the case is not closed tightly. I noticed yesterday it was starting to tarnish again. Anything else I can do to prevent the tarnish. I cleaned it off with my cloth. Where can I buy larger tarnish prevention papers. The one that came with the case covered the whole instrument in the case. All I could find was 2 x 7 strips.
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Author: Paul Aviles
Date: 2020-11-04 02:33
I'm not sure if there is much one can do to prevent silver from oxidizing (chemically reacting to the presence of oxygen). Back in the day when many folks had actual silver silverware, it needed to be regularly polished.
If you regularly go in and wipe the keys off with a plain cotton flannel cloth (once a week if not playing; after every time you play) it should keep the keys pretty pristine. Using a dedicated polishing cloth regularly will only speed up the removal of the plating (polishing clothes are intentionally abrasive).
............Paul Aviles
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Author: Tony F
Date: 2020-11-04 03:13
Sometimes this discolouration is caused by materials used in the case, such as outgassing from foam or adhesives. If the plating is silver, anything containing sulphur such as rubber bands will cause discolouration.
Tony F.
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