removing silver plate

[EdFirth]

Oh grand exalted repair gurus, other than buffing it off are there any ways to remove silver plating? The instrument in question is the bottom of a Conn 36J(the bell is a new unlaquered Kanstul).Thanks folks, Ed Firth

[EdFirth]

Thanks Joe! I knew I could count on you. The horn is ancient satin finish, so it would just retain the "satiny" aspect? And please forgive me but i'm not familiar with etching.But the etching thing aside I'm figuring that it will just turn down to that "baby poop" brown.Yes? Thanks, Ed

[Sam Gnagey]

My understanding is that Anderson uses a reverse electrolysis method to strip silver plate. I've had the experience, albeit rare, that the process weakened the integrity of the seams in bells. I offer this just as a bit of caution. I no-longer will subject vintage bells that I use to this procedure preferring to leave the old silver plate as found. The tubas come out two-tone in finish, not so "Purdy", but perhaps more likely to have a long serviceable life.

[royjohn]

While perhaps not the ideal solution, spot replating the horn might be the least trouble, if the silver plate is in any kind of decent shape. You can even do this yourself with a silver plating pen which you can buy on line. The surface would need to be clean and buffed or polished perfectly if you want perfect silver plate, as any defects show plainly in the silver plate. However, this could be easily accomplished with a flexshaft and some small buffs. I'm not exactly sure how you'll get a satin finish . . . with a plating bath, if you overplate, you start to get a cloudy finish, which might work, but I would ask the people who sell the plating pens, such as Caswell Plating, as they can tell you . . . possibly you would need to bead blast the area replated. The plating pen does not produce a very thick plating layer unless you go over the area a number of times, but you can get a nice looking job and make it as thick as you want by going over the area again and again.

As I say, this is not an ideal solution, but I have known people to pen plate an entire trumpet, so it is possible, with a little patience, to plate a considerable area. As far as the bell being a different (lacquer) finish, you could certainly take the silver off the slide ends and the valve caps and lacquer them fairly cheaply and then you'd have a two tone horn which might actually look pretty good.

Silver can look pretty bad but clean up really nicely if you polish it, so it might be a good idea to polish it up some and look critically at it before deciding to take all the plating off, which, as some have said, is fraught with downsides. Don't polish too hard or you'll lose your satin finish . . .

[EdFirth]

I want to thank you guys for your input,the upright bell is an unlaquered Kanstul and I have an idea what it would cost to plate it.The silver on the bottom half is pretty toasted.I can get it looking OK with Tarnex but it turns down very fast. So I think it would be better to make the bottom unlaquered too if I can afford it.My King Monster is unlaquered,supposedly since new, and I just polish the inner bell and it looks OK. Not to mention how the raw brass finish is imperfection friendly these being such old horns.In fact, I have owned and played on quite a few raw brass horns and they have been pretty much acceptabe to the places I work at but they always seem suspect of a two tone horn. Not that it's really anyone's business but mine, but with work as sparse as it is these days why swim upstream?Thanks again everyone for the input. Ed

[royjohn]

EdFirth wrote:

The silver on the bottom half is pretty toasted.I can get it looking OK with Tarnex but it turns down very fast.

This puzzles me a little. IDK why it would tarnish (?) faster than any other plate. Possibly it would be a good idea to try using another silver polish that works by very gentle abrasion. I think Tarnex works by chemical means and possibly that influences how long the polish lasts. Most of the other polishes have some wax in them that tends to inhibit tarnish. I suppose the issue could be that the plate is very very thin, but I wouldn't think this would be an all over thing. It might help to have someone who knows silver plate take a look at it. I wouldn't be opposed to raw brass myself and have several trumpets that are that way, but if the silver is workable, it is a better finish. To me, at least.