Well, tonight I finished removing, cleaning, oiling and polishing my keys (yes, Cathy there *was* tarnish there). The keys are definitely not just silver, but must be "nickel silver" as some have said (could someone explain to me what that is? Is it just an alloy?) I rubbed them good and hard with the fine steel wool, then finished them with a silver polishing cloth. They shine like new!
Also, I noticed that the maker stamp looked a little yellow, so I started trying to clean out all the letters, and sure enough, after scraping gunk out of the letters, they are now gold! I'm guessing after it was stamped, it was rubbed with gold leaf (or something else?). I need a better tool to make it cleaner, but it looks real nice already.
Now, if I could only play it as nicely as it looks ....
There's a guy in my F&D corps who plays everything -- I'll let him have a go.
(Here's me taking it easy on myself, since it's been less than a week since I've had it)
Flute restoration DIY info
-
Jayhawk
- Posts: 3907
- Joined: Tue Oct 15, 2002 6:00 pm
- antispam: No
- Please enter the next number in sequence: 8
- Tell us something.: Well, just trying to update my avatar after a decade. Hope this counts! Ok, so apparently I must babble on longer.
- Location: Lawrence, KS
- Contact:
I could pretty much tell by the patina on the keys they were german silver. They don't have any silver in them at all. Actually, they're a nickel alloy - I think Jessie once described them as essentially a white brass like metal.
The only think I don't like about the stuff since it is harder than silver and won't bend as easily is that I'm allergic to it...or at least my lower lip/chin is. Keys made of german silver don't bother me, but my chin gets all red, swollen and itchy...
Eric
The only think I don't like about the stuff since it is harder than silver and won't bend as easily is that I'm allergic to it...or at least my lower lip/chin is. Keys made of german silver don't bother me, but my chin gets all red, swollen and itchy...
Eric
-
fluti31415
- Posts: 283
- Joined: Wed Dec 15, 2004 12:11 pm
- Please enter the next number in sequence: 1
- Location: USA
This is so cool! To check for leaky pads, you need something thin to put between the pad and the tonehole. We used a thin strip of (ungummed!!) cigarette paper, but if you have any old cassette tapes, the tape works better. Just put it under the closed pad and pull it out. Do this several times as you work around the pad, and you can feel if there are spots that don't grip as well.
Shannon
(aka fluti31415)
(aka fluti31415)