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Wanted to ask for some input on how to polish satin silver. I was told by a trusted local repair guy to use the silver polish sparingly, but then to clean it (wipe it) with Windex. Would this be the way to go?

Nikolas Lacquer in a can is what I use for touchups. I believe it is Nitrocellulose based. Make sure you shake it well. Also be aware that most companies add a little tint to their lacquer to make the color "pop" better on the instrument.

The most important thing if you want it to stick, is surface preparation. The area needs to be polished to remove oxidation and utterly devoid of anything that would prevent proper adhesion. Dish soap and water and then drying with a lint free cloth to get off anything that might stick.

Satin silver finishes can be a real chore to get just right, particularly when the finish is new and more coarse. Over the years, as older finishes are repeatedly polished, they become less satin and closer to bright silver, and easier to polish. If the finish has a significant amount of tarnish, I pour a bottle of Tarn-X into a spray bottle, and spray it on full-strength. Depending upon the severity of the tarnish, I will gently rub the finish with gloved fingers, or very gently with a used scotchbrite pad, or with #0000 steel wool if it's really bad. Once the instrument has been brightened and cleaned, I use TarniShield tarnish-preventative silver polish. It has a minimum of abrasive, shines and protects like nothing else I've used, and smells better than most options, too. The problem with a coarse satin finish is in getting the black residue out of the pores. If it is really dark and grey-looking after silver-polishing, a Dawn dishwashing liquid and warm water scrub will remove that, you can dry it and it looks like new. If it is a more minor amount, rubbing alcohol with wintergreen applied, then drying the horn with a terry towel will do the trick. For lacquering, prep of the surface cannot be overestimated. The same rubbing alcohol with wintergreen (the green-looking rubbing alcohol, the same thing as Sani-Mist), is an aggressive-enough degreaser to effectively prepare a surface for lacquering. I also wipe down my silver-plating work with this before sending it to Anderson Plating. Humidity makes a difference, as Joe discussed. If you get everything just perfect, the outcome is perfect. . .

After cleaning with a silver cleaning cloth, I took my sousaphone to my local auto body shop and had it clear-coated. Never cleaned it again.

TubaSchnaidt wrote:After cleaning with a silver cleaning cloth, I took my sousaphone to my local auto body shop and had it clear-coated. Never cleaned it again.

It should be noted that in their Trombones, those that offer a Sterling or Solid silver bell almost always lacquer it. Unless it's one of those trim packages with silver plate and gold wash.

While many people LOVE the look of satin, having seen the resto projects that Dan Oberloh has done, I can see that for longevity it isn't really the best. I see the same thing with Satin Finished guitars, motorcycles, cars, etc. Eventually just cleaning them starts to slowly buff out the finish.

There are a range of possibilities. Sandblasting can be very light, to very heavy. Light satin looks silvery, and it's easy to keep looking good. Heavy satin looks white at first, gets darker with age as the pits in the finish fill up, and there's no point in trying to do anything about it if you aren't prepared to go all out, because any cleaned up spot will be surrounded by a ring of black caught in the pits. Probably easier to do though - I mean, sure, takes more time to do all that sandblasting, but it's no problem to get an even finish, just keep going until it's all fully blasted.