Cleaning Satin 52J

[Voisi1ev]

Whats happening everyone. Long time lurker, not a lot of posts.

As with many of us that own satin horns keeping it clean is a struggle. Would there be any problem taking a semi rough dish sponge over it with water?

Nothing to crazy just one of the generic yellow/green variety you see at a lot of store here in the states.

I just feel like a little bit of grit might take some tarnish/dirt/spit stains out.

Thanks for your time.

[GC]

A wise Toobnetter mentioned mixing Wright's Silver Cream with Dawn dishwashing detergent to remove tarnish. The Dawn lets you hose off the polish and tarnish and cleans remaining black crud out of the pits in the finish. You then have to dry out the nooks and crannies by hand.

[NCSUSousa]

If you use the green/yellow dish sponges - ONLY use the yellow side on satin (or bright) silver. The green side is scotchbrite (or a knockoff) and it WILL scuff the finish on satin finished silver plated brass. This also applies to bright finished silver plated brass.

Alternatively, try using a plain soft dish sponge that doesn't have a 'scrub' side.

Whats happening everyone. Long time lurker, not a lot of posts.

As with many of us that own satin horns keeping it clean is a struggle. Would there be any problem taking a semi rough dish sponge over it with water?

Nothing to crazy just one of the generic yellow/green variety you see at a lot of store here in the states.

I just feel like a little bit of grit might take some tarnish/dirt/spit stains out.

Thanks for your time.

[Voisi1ev]

Thanks all. I'm pretty sure this was more of a lack of my knowledge of dish cleaning tools than things that damage brass instruments. I'll probbaly do a test scrub on a small spot and see what happens with plain sponge. Maybe rinse it off well first just to be safe.

I'll try the Wright's/Dawn thing also.

Love my horn but if I could go back in a time machine I would tell 19 year old me in 2002 to buy the same model with regular plating or lacquer. I don't care if it looks weird/bad, but it just looks gross. Like, I don't want to touch it with my face kind of gross.

[Chasetbr]

At Ohio state we have silver satin 20k's and to do the satin part we make a baking soda paste and rub it in with our hands and old straps (from old bottom bow protectors but like backpack straps) to "floss" between tubes along with toothbrushes. After that wash it off in the shower and use wrights cream to dry polish the bell and also to spot check the satin part. This works very very well even when heavy tarnished.

[Matt Walters]

The tub of Wrights comes with a sponge that works very well. Your 52J comes apart so you could do a very nice job of cleaning everything with Wrights, rinse, soft cloth or sponge with Dawn, rinse, the dry with a soft towel.
Put it back together with fresh oil and grease.

[TUbajohn20J]

Post pics after you do it. My favorite thing to look at is a freshly polished satin silver horn. They are beautiful shined up!