Hey everyone I’ve noticed that my Sindt brass D and my Burke brass D have developed a green spot on the brass while stored in my Pinegrove Leather roll case. I took them out and wiped the green spot off with a microfiber cloth and moved them to a Burke roll case. I noticed after wiping the spot that there is a little dark spot where the green was.
What are best practices to care for the whistles when you see the green spot?
Thanks!
I’d say the best advice for a shiny whistle is - don’t buy a brass whistle. I don’t bother with cleaning mine.
I’d say the best advice for a shiny whistle is - don’t buy a brass whistle.
Spit, sweat, whatever is on your skin, chemicals used for tanning of your leather case or just the environment will tarnish and oxidise your metal. That’s life.
Cleaning and putting on a coating, renaissance wax, lacquer or what have you, will keep the shine for a bit longer. Or keeping your instruments in a glass case without playing them, that will do it too.
I use Weiman Brass polish in a bottle. It is water based, doesn’t smell too bad while you are using it and rinses off completely with water. I only do it now and again, maybe once a year. The eight ounce bottle sells for about eight bucks and will last you a number of years.
I had a nasty bloom of green corrosion around the holes on a Sindt I had stored for a while. I thought I had somehow destroyed it. Jon Sindt told me to try Wright’s liquid polish, but I found the Weiman’s at my grocery store. It appeared in very much the same white bottle. So I gave that a try to great success. It took a couple of passes to get the mess to disappear. And there is no damage to the metal.
In my case it was more of a maintenance issue than a cosmetic one. The bloom of verdigris seemed more potentially damaging and toxic than your basic tarnish. 
I have yet to do any more than a yearly pass and all is well with the whistle.
I realize that brass whistles tarnish haha.
I’m okay with that. I’m just trying to avoid the green spots.
Should I wipe them down with a cloth after every play? Maybe a brass polishing cloth? Or just a microfiber cloth?
I think the case is causing the reaction. May have to use that only for a carrying case and not as a storage case for the whistles.
I don’t mind the tarnish, just the green spots.
I have some Wright’s I believe but haven’t used it yet. I could try it on my Killarney, but the process of cleaning with Wright’s and then the proper way to dry it out is a little unclear to me.
It could very well be the leather case causing the verdigris. Chromium sulfate is a common compound for tanning, and sulfates (along with sulfides, chlorides, and some others) can cause the green verdigris to appear on copper. If the whistle hasn’t completely dried out before you stick it in the case, that might also accelerate the issue.
Yes, that’s your solution.
The dark spot is pitting from the corrosion. If Nevr-Dull wading or a Brasso-type liquid polish won’t remove the spot, the surface needs deeper cleaning. You can restore it with a bench buffer and several grades of polish https://tinyurl.com/y8p65rm3 . The different grits can create a finish that varies from satin to a chrome-like mirror shine. If you prefer a brushed finish, use these types of pads https://tinyurl.com/y72tlmd2 . To maintain the restored finish, keep the metal waxed with Renaissance.
just clean it off, saliva and brass, or brass touching leather, gives off the green, polish ,brasso no issues
I have some Wright’s brass polish, but have yet to use it on my whistles mostly because once you put it on and rinse some of it will get inside the whistle and I am unsure how to make sure it’s all out of there before I play as I assume it can be hazardous to one’s health. Just run a cloth through it?
I’m very cautious with the Sindt D.
I have ordered a brass polishing cloth. Can I try that before moving on to the liquid?
I’m still learning all of this.
There are many techniques that work for cleaning brass, including mild soap, ammonia & water, vinegar & water, baking soda or salt sometimes added (more abrasive), WD-40. Google a bit & perhaps start with the least hazardous.
I have noticed a dab of dish soap mixed with water actually helps to remove tarnish. But I’ve not wiped the entire whistle down with it.
Search Amazon for “flute cleaning rod”. They should also be available at your local music shop. Another option is a firearm cleaning rod with a ‘slotted tip jag’. Feeding some cloth through the slot will create a swab that, with soapy water, will clean the whistle’s bore. Bore mops of various sizes are made for firearm rods; something for .40 or .50 caliber should work on a whistle.
For neglected metal whistles that have corrosion inside the bore, use the above rod with some Nevr-Dull wadding, or cloth patch with liquid brass cleaner. If the bore is really bad, chuck the rod in an electric drill and stroke the wadding through the bore spinning with moderate rpm.
Whatever a whistle is made of, you should keep a cleaning rod in your kit and use it after each session to remove condensation.
soap an water tee shirt on a string
You can certainly try the brass polishing cloth. The other things like salt and vinegar did not work for me for the verdigis, though they do ok on tarnish. The polish was on the advice of Jon Sindt so I think it is safe. We do want to deal with corrosion before it becomes pitting. The advice of a piece of t shirt on a string is perfect. You actually do not mind getting a bit of polish and rinsing water inside, as it is brass in there too! As long as you have the instrument apart a good housecleaning of any bore gunk can’t hurt.
You want to take the head off anyway, so you will have a nice opening both ends.
Now if your head gets stuck on the tube I can explain the great advice I got from him some years ago, involving painters tape, a LARGE metal washer, a pipe nipple and gravity…
So just wipe the whistle down with the polish, then rinse the whistle in and out, then dry it out inside with a cleaning rod and cloth and then wipe the outside with a cloth?
Yes indeedy. You may have to wipe two or three times using a bit of fresh polish each time. Mine was particularly exciting. It looked like green flowers had bloomed around each finger hole. It completely wiped away without leaving a trace and has never returned. I’ve used a t shirt scrap, a microfiber cloth, or an old terry wash cloth at different times, depending on what is at hand. Rinsing in warm water and drying it with a clean version of any of the above will work fine. If you want to run something through the tube to dry it out make a mini clarinet swab out of a strip of t shirt or whatever cloth you’ve got about and a piece of string. The tube is relatively short so you don’t need to weight the string like they do with the clarinet swab, just drop it through. If you have a cleaning rod just draw a scrap of cloth through, and that will be fine as well.
Received my brass polishing cloth today and wiped down the parts of the whistle where the green was and I am happy with simply doing that for now. I like the brass patina, so I didn’t polish the rest of the whistle.