Polishing a silver horn

[Dan Schultz]

Hagerty's Silver Polish. Available through jewelry stores and online.... here:

http://www.hagerty-polish.com/

[pulseczar]

There's also Wright's Silver Cream.

Having polished a trumpet recently (I work at a band instrument repair shop) I have to say that a professional job will be oustanding because they have the tools and means to do a more throrough job.

If you have alot of time and patience though, you can pretty much do it yourself.

[Chuck(G)]

If you don't mind being a little sloppy, try a paste of rottenstone and alcohol. Extremely gentle, this leaves a beautiful, scratch-free shine.

But it's messy to work with.

[tubamirum]

www.Maasinc.com This stuff is great.

[Chuck(G)]

Never heard of this before! What would you use apply/polish with the rottenstone (which type of cloth, sponge, etc...) as this seems to influence the scratch/swirl factor greatly, too. .

I've used cotton waste to apply the stuff and a well-laundered soft cotton rag to polish the stuff off.

My gripe with all of the so-called "non-abrasive" polishes is that the agent used (silica or rouge) is somewhere around the hardness of garnet. Rottenstone is quite a bit softer--I've used it in the traditional way, to polish wood finishes and wondered if it might work on silverplate. It does--quite well.

I've gotten to like the stuff enough that I may start using the it with a wax binder as a polish on the buffing machine.

Museum conservators use it as a fne metal polish. Another I've heard mentioned is lampblack, but that's just too messy for my tastes.

[Bob Mosso]

I prefer Hagerty's Silver Polish in a spray can. No problem for the typical do it yourselfer:

-disassemble and clean the entire horn
-lube and reassemble
-spray the horn with Hagerty's (be careful it stinks and has caused my daughter's asthema)
-wipe off the Hagerty's with a clean soft cloth, cotton or microfiber
-save the cloth in a ziplock bag for next time

Bob

[Chuck(G)]

I've had great success with Flitz Metal Polish. It is a liquid that you just wipe on and then wipe off. It contains no abrasives or ammonia.

As I've said before, "abrasives" seems to be a term of art. Check out:

http://www.flitz.com/msds/polish_liquid.pdf

Contents? Basically mineral spirits, alumina (an abrasive) and diatomaceous earth (another abrasive). Nothing that would even produce a chemical reaction. Just abrasives in kerosene.

So, how does this differ from Brasso? Let's look at the MSDS for that:

http://www.herc.org/library/msds/brasso.htm

Basically an abrasive (unnamed) in stoddard solvent. Not much different from Brasso, huh?

Okay, well how about Hagerty's?

http://www.walshbrothers.co.uk/Update/S ... h_MSDS.htm

Shows it to be water, detergent ("surfactant") and some aromatic hydrocarbons (xylene, benzyl alcohol). Again, no chemically active ingredients. It's pink, which I'm guessing means that the abrasives are rouge and silica.

How about Noxon? Here's the MSDS:

http://pages.slc.edu/~aschultz/chemical ... 0NOXON.PDF

Water, ammonia, oxalic acid (might remove rust stains), alcohol and--silica (abrasive).

How about Simichrome?

http://pages.slc.edu/~aschultz/chemical ... 0NOXON.PDF

Let's see--mineral spirits, kerosene, ammonium oleate (basically a soap), aluminum oxide (alumina--abrasive), some sort of fatty acid, Iron oxide (rouge), and glycine (probably for consistency).

How about Mr. Metal? Well now, that's hard to say. While Mr. Metal has a web site, the MSDS is available "on request". I'm guessing that it shares quite a bit of similarity with Noxon.

So what's the point of all of this? Just that all "silver polishes" contain an abrasive agent as a mechanical method of obtaining a shiny surface.

Obviously, the less you use these, the longer the plating's going to last on your horn. SImilarly, the softer the abrasive, the less material it'll remove.

The only true non-abrasive chemically acting agent available in the retail market that I'm aware of is Tarn-X. And it's not a polish--it says so right on the label--it's a "Tarnish Remover".

If you're dealing with fingerprints and just a light brown haze on your instrument, consider using some Windex and a clean soft cloth.

[Bob Mosso]

Thank you Chuck(G). I was under the impression some of these did not contain abrasives..... Even 3M's Tarni-Shield appears to have abrasives.

http://multimedia.mmm.com/mws/mediawebs ... J6OK3FQw--

Interesting what you can find in an MSDS.

Bob

[Dan Schultz]

Just a note.... once you get that fantastic ax looking good, store it in a case or put it in a plastic bag. Sulfur is the greatest enemy of polished silver and is especially prevelant during the winter months because sulfur is a by-product of the burning of most fossil fuels. If you have a vent-free gas fireplace you will notice rapid tarnishing if you keep the horn in the same room.

[pulseczar]

3m also makes strips that prevents silver from tarnishing also. Chuck it in your case and replace it every 6 months.

http://www.silverguard.com/antitarnish_strips.htm

[Dan Schultz]

I heard (while talking about silverware) that if you put aluminum foil at the bottom of a sink filled with cold water and let your silver soak it will remove the tarnish ...

Actually... the aluminum foil magic goes something like this:

Line a metal pan with aluminum foil and fill with enough water to cover the tarnished item. Add 2 tablespoons baking soda per quart of water. Heat the water above 150 degrees. Place the tarnished item in pan so it touches the foil. Do not let the water boil. The hydrogen from the baking soda combines with the sulfur in the tarnish, removing the stains.

I would guess that this would be a little too cumbersome to perform on a tuba.

[Chuck(G)]

The hydrogen from the baking soda combines with the sulfur in the tarnish, removing the stains.

I would guess that this would be a little too cumbersome to perform on a tuba.

Dan, this does work, but not because of the hydrogen in the baking soda. You'll actually get better results if you use washing soda (sodium carbonate) instead of bicarbonate.

Some folks add a little salt. It's important that the article be in direct contact with the aluminum foil and that the container be non-conductive (a plastic garbage can would be fine). The water needs to be nearly boilingl the hotter the better.

The way it works is that the carbonate (borax would also work fine) hydrolizes and acts on the thin oxide coating off of the foil. It then continues to react with the aluminum, liberating hydrogen. But that only serves to get things started.

A salt bridge is formed that sets up a small current flowing between the aluminum and the silver. The tarnish (silver sulfide) goes into solution and the aluminum (which is electrochemically more active than the silver) attaches to sulfur, forming aluminum sulfide. The aluminum sulfide is hydrolized almost immediately and hydrogen sulfide is given off as a gas (which accounts for the bad smell). What's left is moderately-soluble aluminum hydroxide, which can be seen as a scum on the surface of the water.

The hydrogen that's liberated because of the reaction of the strong base with the aluminum is incidental to the reaction and actually plays no direct part therein.

Note that this works only on sulfide tarnishes, not on oxidized silver. A magnesium plate would probably work better than aluminum foil.

I'll add that this method will leave the surface of the silver somewhat more porous, so there's a potential for the silver to tarnish faster. Also, this won't remove really heavy tarnish and some conservation experts seem to think that there's a potential for pitting the silver surface.

[Chriss2760]

I am assuming (from reading the posts) that we are discussing polishing an unlacquered silver horn. Is that correct? My only experience with using silver polish on a lacquered was when an acquantance used it on a two month old satin silver Besson and ruined the finish of this lovely horn.

Chris (Who has a year-old silver Yamaha that he would like to get the swirls out of the lacquer on.)

[Dylan King]

I wonder if this method from Haley's Hints could be altered to safely polish a silver-plated horn...

REMOVE TARNISH FROM SILVERWARE

1.) Line a pan with a sheet of aluminum foil or use an aluminum pan. Stir 3 T. baking soda or Comet to each quart of water used. Lay silver in pan making sure it touches foil.
2.) Put a sheet of aluminum foil in a non-metallic pan. Add 1 t. salt and 1 t. baking soda per quart of water used and bring to a boil. Lay silver in pan touching foil until tarnish is gone.
3.) If you're out of silver polish don't despair, water in which potatoes have been cooked will remove tarnish from silverware. Just soak the pieces for an hour and the tarnish will disappear. Wash the pieces in suds, rinse well and dry.
4.) Put silver in plastic dishpan and set in your sink. Add Dermassage and 1/2 c. Roman Cleanser to boiling water. Let soak; stir occasionally.

Note: These methods remove all tarnish. If you want the patina in the grooves of the pattern to remain - DON'T USE THIS METHOD!!