I haven’t played my Grinter low F for a while—yes, I know, naughty Wombat—and I noticed that when I tried to attach the head to the body the tuning slide was too stiff for me to do so without forcing it. I was wondering how best to rectify the problem.
I could use a brass cleaning agent (Brasso is the local brand) but I thought it might be a bit too abrasive—I don’t want to make the slide permanently loose. A friend suggested I use a silver cleaning agent. A very fine jeweller’s cloth seemed another possibility. Does anybody have a strong opinion about how best to tackle this problem?
Ditto Paul - 0000 steel wool is the best - cleans and shines without damage or residue or mess of any kind. Been using it for years on slides and the brass bodies as well. On the body I finish with a jeweler’s cloth; I wouldn’t do anything but the ultra fine quadruple ought steel wool on the slide. It’s always worked perfectly, yet people react as though I’ve told them to stick the slide up an elephant’s arse…
I think people have trouble mentally distinguishing hardware store ultra-fine steel wool from the
stuff in the kitchen. And judging by the scratches I’ve seen on some pieces of metalwork
where ‘steel wool’ was used to remove the rust… uhm… ouch, yes, I think there are people
that don’t understand the difference…
The ultra-fine stuff is very nice for all kinds of polishing and rust removal of harder metals.
I wouldn’t use it on a silver slide, though; on that soft a metal, I think it would take off
too much material in a pass. Maybe thoughts of silver slides are part of people’s confusion
too.
I once lent a musician friend an expensive metal whistle with a frozen tuning slide, and the next time I talked to him on the phone he said he had unfrozen the joint…with a Dremel tool. It’s a good thing you can’t kill people over the phone.
Fortunately for him, he did an excellent job, but I was still a bit anxious until I actually SAW it…
Of course, I always store my Busman’s (Busmen?) disassembled, since Paul provides such a nice little pouch, but all my others are stored assembled.
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This has been brought up before, but it’s a good idea to always store two part whistles disassembled. With moisture between the components of a tuning slide, corrosion can occur which will tarnish the tubing, and even freeze them up making it difficult if not impossible to separate the halves. This is why my whistle cases are too short to store an assembled whistle-- to encourabe people to separate them!
I store all my wooden whistles and flutes disassembled, unless I forget to disassemble as occasionally happens. As for the Grinter, the male part is just darkened, the female part isn’t even darkened. I keep my Grinter in my study next to my Busman which has a tuning slide which is a very easy fit. I also store wooden whistles and flutes exposed to the (indoor) elements. The climate here is humid and rarely cold so I find that mode of storage untroublesome.
I just got a tip that came from a flute maker: instead of commercially sold tuning slide grease, a clear grease used by scuba divers for their regulators is recommended. Worth a try!
And I keep all my whistles assembled. Should probably invest some time into putting together a protective case sometime soon.
For basic cleanup of tarnish and slight corrosion, I use Wright’s Brass Polish. It’s yards less abrasive than either Brasso or 0000 steel wool, which I would only recommend as a last resort for heavy corrosion removal. Any sort of steel wool removes brass, and if you accidentally get even a minute bit in the joint, can cause an electrochemical reaction with condensates and the brass that can cause even more damage. iron + brass +acidic or base moisture, equals a teensy battery, folks… guaranteeing further corrosion. If you must use an abrasive, use 1000 or 1200 WetOrDry (silicon carbide) paper, very gently, and rinse off the area with clear water, unless the instrument is wooden, in which case I’d just avoid the use of abrasives altogether.
I use pure beeswax as both an adhesive, and an anti-corrosive, “no-airleak” coating, in my whistle joints. It can get a bit goopy in time, but can easily be cleaned off by warming and wiping off with a soft cloth and a drop or two of bore oil. Reapplication is as simple as just drawing it onto he joint like writing with a crayon. There’s a picture of that operation on my website.
Best,
Bill Whedon
Serpent Music
Once you’ve got a “frozen” slide somewhat worked loose with a bit of opposite hand twistwhilst pulling in opposite directions (rubber gloves or the like helps for traction; and perhaps a bit of hot water over the joint), you may want to try some good old chap stick or vaseline - just a bit and none anywhere else.
C’mon Bill, I use 0000 steel wool to clean my eye balls in the morning! ("Course, I am beginning to get a bit of an odd look).
Cool, Phil! Hey, Dan Bingamon reminded me that there’s also some stuff that works a lot like steel wool, bu is made of a polymer and won’t cause corrosion if it gets wet. Something like “Scotch Brite”, which I’ve heard of before, but haven’t tried. Sounds good, Dan! And Phil’s eyes could probably benefit from the lower abrasion, too!
Cheers,
Bill Whedon
Based on 25 years of experience with the stuff (20 in the Army, and 5 as an engraver), if you don’t shake it, it separates like peanut butter, and all you get is the solvent, which is definitely not abrasive.
Actually, if you leave it for too long, the sediment can get even harder to break up than peanut butter. I once poked a hole in the bottom of a can of Brasso while trying to dislodge a bit of gunk with a screwdriver.
Even though the particles don’t seem very coarse, combined with a cloth no coarser than a normal T-shirt it can leave fine scratches. We used to spin polish the backing plates on our collar brass, and the fine scratches made it look really cool. It didn’t require all that much pressure to accomplish this.
A friend of mine even figured out how to spin polish his belt buckle. Now that was impressive! The first time he wore it at a stand-by inspection, he was standing next to his open foot locker, and the inspecting officer, who was leaning over the foot locker saw it, and his head was just drawn toward my friend’s stomach, as if it were magnetized. I was standing on the other side of the foot locker, and had trouble not breaking up.
It’s a good thing you can’t kill people over the phone.
("Course, I am beginning to get a bit of an odd look).