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Hi all

Hope you're safe and well!

With a bit of time on my hands, I thought about polishing up my Helicon, which looks like this

https://imgur.com/gallery/aZqTYdT

I have three (possibly stupid) questions:

1. Is that raw/unlacquered brass?

2. Is Simichrome the best thing to use on it?

3. Should I follow that up with Renaissance wax?

Any and all advice welcomed!

It may look better by just shining up the inside of the bell.

That's a NICE patina. Don't mess with it, IMHO. Wash it and wax it to maintain it. Polishing the whole thing would be onerous, keeping it that way would be impossible, and it looks good already. Just put something over the contact areas to avoid excessive corrosion.

bloke wrote:If raw brass look is considered to be beautiful, why not spray some reasonably long lasting clear rattle can lacquer on it to protect it, instead of wax?

Cleaning and buffing the surface of an "all original" car which had the finish weathered off the tops of the fenders, hood, trunk and then putting satin clear- two or three coats- is popular with the hot rod crowd.

Which "rattle can" lacquer do you suggest?

That's a beauty! Don't touch that beautiful patina.

It's a rat rod

I love it just the way it is.

I give my raw brass sousie a spritz of lemon Pledge furniture polish every now and then. Gives the patina a bit of a healthy glow...

Is it possible to remove the nasty green stuff without erasing the patina??

Personally, I wouldn't mess with it at all! .....because "Raw Brass Sounds Better".

I do like the idea above of polishing the inside of the bell only. I did this years ago with an old King curved-bell euphonium which was raw brass except for the inside of the bell......it was cool,.....my son used it through HS.

My wife is into chalk paint,.....maybe.......

I would put guards or wrap on the places where you touch it, and leave it alone otherwise. On my unfinished trombones, my right hand gets black on it (and a funny smell) from the brass part of the slide, and the slide where I touch it gets polished a little by my fingers. I'd put a wrap of some sort on it. Trombones with unfinished neckpipes turn white shirt collars black, so I wrap them with cork bicycle handlebar tape. If you play that thing raw as it is while wearing a white shirt, you might wind up with a bandolier type stripe around you.

Thanks for all the replies - the consenus seems to be leave it as it is.

Three Valves wrote:Is it possible to remove the nasty green stuff without erasing the patina??

Does anyone have any advice on this?

I'm definitely not going to lacquer it... that's way beyond my cack-handed abilities.

I'm curious about polishing the inside of the bell... would anyone see it?!

Just out of interest, has anyone got some before and after pics of a polished raw brass horn?

I've never noticed any black gunk on my hands or clothes after playing, maybe I will now!

Thanks again folks

Ernieball wrote:Thanks for all the replies - the consenus seems to be leave it as it is.

Three Valves wrote:Is it possible to remove the nasty green stuff without erasing the patina??

Does anyone have any advice on this?

I'm definitely not going to lacquer it... that's way beyond my cack-handed abilities.

I'm curious about polishing the inside of the bell... would anyone see it?!

Just out of interest, has anyone got some before and after pics of a polished raw brass horn?

I've never noticed any black gunk on my hands or clothes after playing, maybe I will now!

Thanks again folks

Raw brass won't leave black gunk, until you polish it. Then, because it's nearly impossible to get all the polish off, it will come off on you and your clothes until it's clean. Unless you clean it with soap in the tub after polishing it, of course.

Raw brass will leave green deposits, particularly in the presence of an electrolyte, such as the salt in perspiration. That's why you cover the spots that you touch. Leather will mark the instrument.

A nicely polished raw brass horn looks basically like any other new tuba, except that every dent or impression you ever imagined but didn't see will now be clearly visible.

Here's a freshly polished raw brass tuba:



Rick "that tuba was simply brown, not with the patina yours has earned over many decades" Denney

Is it OK to use bicarbonate of soda and lemon juice (or vinegar) to remove the green gunk from raw brass?

Ernieball wrote:Is it OK to use bicarbonate of soda and lemon juice (or vinegar) to remove the green gunk from raw brass?

Green gunk is greasy--use grease-cutting dish soap in a bathtub. The green is from copper oxidation, but it will wash out with the gunk.

The acid is for removing lime deposits, which are hard, white, crusty layers on interior surfaces. Vinegar works fine. But prevention (liberal oiling of the interior surfaces) is easier than the cure. Bicarbonate of soda is an alkaline, not an acid--people use it in the past to relieve acid reflux (then known as heartburn). Mixing it with lemon juice will just make foam (and leave a salt residue that still has to be washed out). Plain vinegar is cheap by the gallon.

Rick "vinegar = mild acetic acid" Denney

Ernieball wrote:
I'm curious about polishing the inside of the bell... would anyone see it?!

Not many. But for those that notice, like me, they will be impressed and go “OHHhhhhhhhhhh!!”