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Silver tarnish is about to drive me around the bend. Worse, it's about to drive my wife around the bend. Everything the horn touches gets black on it, including my hands, my sleeves, the towel I've been putting on my lap to keep it off my pants, now even the carpet when I set it down on the bell this morning.

I've tried several kinds of polish, including Haggerty's most recently. The polish just makes it worse. Black stuff just keeps coming off the horn. No amount of buffing after polishing is enough. I've even (very gently) used the random orbit buffer I use on my cars.

The buffer got me thinking. Would a thin coat of wax on the tuba stop all this black junk? Would it have bad side effects? Surely I'm not the only one who's had this problem. Have you found a solution?

talleyrand wrote:Silver tarnish is about to drive me around the bend. Worse, it's about to drive my wife around the bend. Everything the horn touches gets black on it, including my hands, my sleeves, the towel I've been putting on my lap to keep it off my pants, now even the carpet when I set it down on the bell this morning.....

Hmmm.... sounds like you have a vent-free fireplace where you are keeping your horn. During the winter heating months, about the only way to keep a silver horn from tarnishing is to keep it in a plastic bag when your not playing it.

Hmmm.... sounds like you have a vent-free fireplace where you are keeping your horn. During the winter heating months, about the only way to keep a silver horn from tarnishing is to keep it in a plastic bag when your not playing it.

That's interesting. I do have one, but there's a room between the fireplace and the tuba's usual spot. I guess that's close enough?

I think you have a residue from previous polishing sessions on it. Everything you put on it (polishing stuff) needs also to be removed.
Start cleaning the horn with a dry cloth and don't use any polish.

After I polish a horn I remove the polish residue with a clean cloth. When this not is done properly I have also "black stuff" coming off.

talleyrand wrote:

Hmmm.... sounds like you have a vent-free fireplace where you are keeping your horn. During the winter heating months, about the only way to keep a silver horn from tarnishing is to keep it in a plastic bag when your not playing it.

That's interesting. I do have one, but there's a room between the fireplace and the tuba's usual spot. I guess that's close enough?

Yup. one of the by-products of a gas flame is sulfur... one of the most tarnish causing agents.

Patrick made a very good point... all of the polishes on the market require that the silver surface be washed after polishing.

I use Pledge to retard oxidation on raw brass horns. Don't know if it would help on silver though.

When I asked for help re polishing a really tarnished horn, several responses suggested taking the thing in the shower with me as a last step. I did and was surprised at the amount of black stuff that washed off even though I thought it was clean already...

Is your horn bright silver or satin silver?

I'd also suggest covering the horn in anti-tarnish cloth when in the case. I do this with my horns with good results.

A good friend of mine suggested using a coat of turtle wax on my silver horn. Since my horn is still on order, I can't attest to the results.

Thank you all for your lore and suggestions. (The horn is bright silver, not satin.)

I will give it a bath, turn off the gas to the fireplace and furnace (since it's warm), and try a little turtle wax on a spot to see how that goes. Unfortunately I don't have a case for it, so the anti-tarnish cloth probably won't help me much.

Please let us know how this goes. I am very curious. I know that as lacquered instruments age, the lacquer darkens and so does the metal under it. Also on some horns, if the lacquer is worn in some areas it is possible for air to tarnish the metal under areas of the lacquer. It isn't terribly common, but it does happen.

Really try 3M Tarnishield. It is very good, even though the best polish won't save you from sulfur in your air.

A certain master repairman has suggested mixing Wright's silver polish with Dawn dishwashing detergent, and then hosing the horn off. I found it the best solution with a satin horn, and I think it should work well with a bright silver instrument.

I used Renaissance Wax when I had a raw brass tuba. It very well suppressed tarnish to the extent I only had to polish once a year to keep shiny. It also stopped my hands getting dirty and smelly handling the tuba. It is used by museums to protect exhibits and should work well on silver plate.

You can buy on eBay - http://cgi.ebay.com/RENAISSANCE-WAX-MET ... 928wt_1139

BRSousa wrote:Please let us know how this goes. I am very curious.

It's been a few weeks and I've worked on it off and on.

The first thing I did was order some 3M Tarni-shield and some Renaissance wax. (The latter is insanely expensive, but on the positive side it doesn't take much.)

Meanwhile, I used the mixture of Wrights and Dawn. That made a big difference right away. Of course, I don't know that it offers any protection for the longer term, but it certainly stopped the tarnish factory cold and got rid of the spots of oiliness that always seem to be on tubas because of valve oil getting where it doesn't belong.

Then work and life diverted my attention for a while. When I got back to it, I used the 3M Tarni-shield as directed, followed by wax. I put turtle wax (just the stuff from AutoZone) on the back of the bell, and the Renaissance wax on the front. The Renaissance Wax polished the horn further, it seems, as the cloth turned black as I applied it and the silver brightened visibly. (It says "crystalline wax" on the label, maybe that's the reason.) There was some of that with the car polish, but not as much.

The wax went on Monday. It's now Wednesday and I did not make a mess practicing before work this morning, so things are looking up. Not having done all this as a controlled experiment, I don't know which product made the biggest contribution. And not enough time has passed to evaluate the two waxes beyond the clear polishing benefit (if that is what it is) of the museum wax. But at any rate that's what I've learned so far.