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Hello, I'm looking for some help.

How much salt is used in this salted water cocktail to remove the black tarnish of off vintage instruments. What type of salt, iodized, sea salt, Himalayan Pink. What is the the recipe and how long the the horn rest with aluminum foil in the bucket.

Tundratubast

It is not salt. It is washing soda, otherwise known as sodium carbonate, and it is not sodium bicarbonate, which is baking soda. There is no specific amount. Just dump a bunch in.

Yup its washing soda. Works great!

Baking soda works just fine.

Where does one find this sodium carbonate? Hardware stores, grocery stores??

Tundratubast wrote: ↑Sat Jan 09, 2021 3:24 pm Where does one find this sodium carbonate? Hardware stores, grocery stores??

All the above. For example:
https://www.walmart.com/ip/Arm-Hammer-S ... z/19407690

iiipopes,

Thank you sir. It is nice to have a photo reference.

Tundra

You can use baking soda (sodium bicarbonate), about a cup per gallon. The exact amount is not important because it isn’t part of the reaction. Its purpose is to remove a surface film of aluminum oxide from the aluminum, to make it more receptive to sulfur (silver tarnish).

The amount of time you need depends on how long it takes for the silver to brighten. You can speed the reaction by using hot water.

Since this method depends upon electrical current, the circuit must be completed by having the silver surface in physical contact with the aluminum.

This method will work best if the surface of the horn has been carefully cleaned first, so that grease and oil do not inhibited the reaction.

Hup

I have tried baking soda, sodium bicarbonate. In my experience, it is slow and does not work nearly as well or efficiently as washing soda, sodium carbonate. A better way to describe the reaction is electrochemical, causing the separation of ions of silver and their polar redeposit on the horn, while the sulphide radicals separate from the silver ions and are recombined with the aluminum.

Good Morning All,

I have a good solution of washing soda and hot water soaking. How long or what are my brightness expectations to be? I have
several vintage coronet the are the dull dark gray. What should I expect? I'm sure it would be different the a newer bright silver trumpet.

Tundra ( Asking for a friend )

The cornets should take a little less time than a larger instrument. Make sure you remove all the valves and the valve slides. I would not submerge the valves and stems, as this is a way to get rid of tarnish, not "re-plate" anything. In the next week or so, I plan on doing this to fix the tarnish on my Couesnon flugelhorn. I will post before and after pics.