Hi Guys,

I have bought a whistle with ABS Plastic Head a Brass tuning slide and an aluminum body.
I will not mention the brand as this might give a negative impression.

It was second hand when I bought it, and of course, I sanitized and cleaned it before using it.

What I did was I soak into warm soapy water, put vinegar on the brass slide to make it shiny and rinse, then dry, then use.

After a week or 2, there is this pungent smell that is sour like a vinegar/cider that comes out of it.

So I wash it again without using the vinegar. After drying it smelled like apples, then after a day, it smelled sour again.

I was wondering if it is my breath or my saliva. I brush my teeth 3 times a day or depending on how many times i eat. I regularly wash with mouthwash so it will smell good.

I have an ABS plastic whistle and it i use it regularly with the SMELLY whistle but it did not smell the same way.

I have a brass whistle which I play the same way and regularly for practice, which does not smell the same way.


So I narrowed down the result, it is not the ABS, it is not the Brass....then it is the Aluminum.

I wash them separately and dried them separately. I practiced again, then store the body and the head separately....

After 2 days or so, the Aluminum smelled bad... so my suspect was right.

Please help me how to treat the odor issue.

I would try soaking it in Listerine mouthwash. I had a flute with a little mold in it and Listerine did the trick.

Pat

I'm not sure about this, but from a chemistry/cooking point of view, you are not supposed to cook anything with acid in a pot that is made with anything other than stainless steel or something with a non-stick coating, because it will react and create an undesirable taste. Aluminum pots are the culprit. My point is, I wonder if the aluminum is reacting to the vinegar, which is an acid. Any thoughts from the group?

Kristen

@plunk111:Mold is a possible issue, but I don't know if listerin is acidic.
Is your flute aluminum also?


@Magickdancer : I cleaned them separately, Aluminum was not cleaned with vinegar, only brass, but the scent remains

Acetic acid (vinegar is weak acetic acid) will attack stainless steel.

Don't know if this will work ... But you might apply a coat of car wax to the aluminum body, just like waxing a car. If the chemistry of your fingers is interacting with the metal, that may be causing the smell. You can probably tell if the smell persists on your fingers as well as on the whistle.

I sometimes use a coat of Meguire's #26 yellow carnauba wax on whistles (brass and aluminum) to help prevent tarnish.

Of course, if the odor is coming from the inside of the whistle, that won't help.

Yeah my fingers.

I may be acidic as well. A car wax, isn't that toxic?

Will petroleum jelly be a good choice?

You're not going to be eating pounds of the stuff. Carnauba wax is used for a variety of purposes including as a coating for pills by many pharmaceutical companies. It's also considered a "food safe" finish in the woodworking community.

Right, don't lick your whistles. I like Meguire's because it's silicone-free (silicone is nasty stuff) and non-abrasive. I suppose any relatively pure wax would do - beeswax, etc. The coating does wear off after a while.

It has a bimetallic joint, brass and aluminium sliding against each other?

Not a brilliant design, surely?

Is it simply corroding itself to bits?

All whistles with metal tuning slides should be stored in two pieces and this is especially true if the two metals are different.

Thanks Guys....

ill need to get a wax soon.

Our country has a Tropical Climate, and we only have season here, sunny and rainy, thus we perspire a lot during sunny seasons, the sweat may be the main reason for that.

I'm not sure where you're from but that phrase has a completely different meaning where I am.

The following line about climate pretty much makes for a reasonable explanation if you need one, doesn't it.

So he did mean THAT kind of wax, huh?