cleaning and maintenance of whistle…tips

[The Weekenders]

Ya gotta love it. The diligent people have careful routines and the slobs don't do anything. And they all say it works best! This is funny.

I do remember Mike Burke saying you shouldn't overdo it with lots of water and such. I like the idea of doing as little as possible, with maybe a careful draw through with the paper or cloth. I think Ronaldo Reyburn sends out a piece of sewing sizing as a sop. i can't remember if he recommended alcohol, tho.

My personal theory is that when the delrin loses its original sheen from manufacture, the whistle never sounds as bright. Messing with it too much hastens the process.

[houstonwhistler]

About a month ago a discussion similiar to this one was going on here. If I remember right, someone suggested Worcestshire Sauce to polish brass whistles. Do I remember that right? I'm trying to find something safe and effective and non-toxic for polishing brass that won't damage the metal.
Any ideas?

HW

[dean]

Ok, this is embarrassing but if it saves someone else from the shame then it will be worth it. I sometimes clean my whistles with soapy water. The last time I did this I had an aluminum Burk and a brass something in the plastic container i was using as the wash bin.

Just as I finished running the water, adding the soap and dropping in the whistles my next door neighbor knocked on the back door and i went to see what was up. The little chat turned into my helping move some things around in their garage and more chat and then a glass of water and a bit of cake as a think you and I went back to my house... having forgotten the whistles.

I eventually went back into my kitchen and found my wonderful, "silver" aluminum Burke was a dull tarnish! High school chemistry came flooding back and I had left two dissimilar metals in a conductive solution and so had anodized.

This is fixable and Mr. Burke gave me good advice on what to try to clean the tarnish off -- it is a metal polish that is impregnated into a fiber/felt wadding. You pinch off a bit of the wadding and polish with it. I forget the brand. You can't use it on the tuning slide though.

So, the lesson is don't SOAK your metal whistles unless you segregate them by materials

[slowair]

My apologizes to the original inventor/poster of this potion, for I cannot recall who it is.

I have used this recipe on all my brass whistles and it works very well.

"Heat a glass or two of vinegar in a pan, bring it to boiling while dissolving kitchen salt in it to saturation. i.e. keep adding salt and stirring until the salt doesn't seem to dissolve any more. It does take a lot, like half-a-glass of salt.

Watch out, do this soup in a well ventilated kitchen: there's chlorine evaporating.

Let it cool outside. Pour in a bottle, slowly to leave the salt deposit in the pan. Stopper the bottle for storage.

This liquid is non toxic, use it on a rag to remove stains on brass/copper whistles (I clean my Sindt with it). Wipe dry. If you dislike the faint vinegar smell remaining, wash with soapy water before drying."

Follow with #0000 steel wool for extra bright shine.

Hope this helps.
Mike

[jemtheflute]

Cleaning whistles is untraditional.

Therefore, NOT cleaning your whistle is traditional.
That's the sort of tradition I like.

Yo, Night Rock, where by in Wales are you?

On topic, I have very occasionally (and to advantage) cleaned out the tubes of my old Generations with hot detergenty water and a nylon bottle brush; the heads with hot detergenty water and a pipe cleaner. I also recently bought one of those small domestic steam cleaner gadgets that I have used successfully to clean (and sterilise!) a batch of second-hand plastic (mostly Aulos) recorders after afore-mentioned technique with washing up liquid and hot water and bottle brush. Did none of them any harm and some were pretty gunged up - most sounded much better after. But I wouldn't advocate any such treatment for a wood whistle! Can't see it would harm any of the all-metal types, though. If you like them shiny, "metal wadding" (Brasso, amongst others, make it in Britain) has already been mentioned and will do a good job - better than messing about with vinegar or Worcester sauce etc. and only negligably abrasive. I don't think I'd risk any grade of wire wool anywhere near the tuning slide of my boxwood Swayne though. If a wooden whistle (or flute) gets gunked up, rinsing/rubbing with meths and a soft cloth shouldn't do any harm as long as you re-oil afterwards.

[anniemcu]

On his site, Mack Hoover recommends a non-toxic brass polish called "Never-Dull", available from The George Basch Co., Inc., Freeport, New York 11520.

[The Weekenders]

I am intrigued by those mini-steam things (for metal whistles). No abrasion, no chemicals..hmm....I guess the only issue would be glued joints on delrin....

[jemtheflute]

Yep, the jet on the steamer did a great job through the windways, though I did run the pipecleaner through them too. Of course, Aulos recorders are famously tough. I'm not sure the plastic heads of the mass production whistles are as hard and heat resistant. I'd be a bit worried about the edge of the labium. Wouldn't want to warp it! Would be fine on delrin or (no glued parts) all-metal whistles though; but you'd need to be cautious about their heat conductivity! Thick rubber gloves probably advisable.

BTW, I've just been reading up (for other reasons) on Renaissance Wax (recently mentioned over on the Flute Forum) and it sounds as though it would be an ideal finish for whistles in all materials, but especially if you want to keep your metal ones shiny! Of course, if you prefer a dull patina of age and use/abuse, corrosion products and gunge......

These guys' (museum conservation product specialists) other products could be of use to some of us too, perchance? I think some of our serious makers might find the Renaissance Wax worth checking out as a regular production finish? Check it out on this link.