You know that Alien movie where Sigourney Weaver is a human-alien hybrid clone so she’s has blood that eats through steel? (Terrible film) Well, I must have some alien DNA in me because the oils in my fingers quickly tarnish any nickel plated whistle I pick up. I don’t have any pictures, but the GenDog I got four months ago already looks like it has four years of corrosion around the note holes, and I haven’t been playing it that hard either. Does anyone else have this problem? Have you figured out a way to turn off the alien gene for highly acidic bodily fluids? Is there a way to protect my whistle?
My sweat totally eats through metal. My hands eat nickel plating off of my tin whistles, as well as the crochet hooks I use to make lace. My skin eats the plating off of any sort of cheap gold or silver plated jewelry I’ve ever tried to wear. My finger sweat eats the plastic finish they put over the whistle to protect them from such things, and then sets to work eating the whistle. Aside from discoloring nickel, it also makes an odd patina on brass whistles, differently colored than non-finger-mark-patina. When I’ve flirted with playing mandolin, it rapidly became clear that I would have to add regular string replacements to the budget – you could see acid burn marks on the strings where I fretted the notes of the tune I was learning.
I’ve also tried taking pictures of it to show people, but find it hard to capture the discoloration in photos. It is much more obvious when you’re looking at the finger-burns in person.
We recently talked about this a little over here:
https://forums.chiffandfipple.com/t/polishing-brass/70342/1
Some polish and polishing suggestions there, too.
I’m one of the lucky non-Aliens who can go a month on a set of uncoated strings. Pretty easy on whistles, too.
Shellac.
Wow, you definitely got it worse than I do. Either that, or my bio chemistry has changed over the last decade. Years ago I played acoustic guitar and the strings were more likely to bite into my fingers than my fingers were to corrode the strings – which they didn’t. Perhaps you’ve been taken aboard the mother ship more than I have.
I’m a bit hesitant take the shellac route. I’m not sure how it might affect the sound of the instrument and even if there is no discernible effect, eventually my fingers will wear the shellac away turning the whistle into an unsightly mess of cracked, yellowed, worn yuckiness.
Maybe it’s best to just have an alcohol wipe handy to clean the oils off the whistle whenever I’m done playing.
The upside of my acidic chemistry is that insects hate biting me. The person sitting next to me will be getting eaten alive, and the mosquitoes will just hover over me, humming irritably. Also a convenient as a pet owner in the dark days before Advantage/Frontline/etc. – the fleas stayed on the dog.
I’m not sure that Simon didn’t mean to shellac your fingers. That wouldn’t affect the tone. And if your fingers are already an unsightly mess like mine, no one will notice the difference. 
Seriously … Another [u]suggestion[/u] I got from another Chiffer (Thomas-Hastay) is to wax the whistle. I tried Meguiar’s #26 Yellow Wax (carnauba). It leaves a light coating, and has no silicone so it’s not too slippery (and silicone is insidiuous). Wears off after a while, but it’s easily renewed, and it does help. I guess a pure paste wax or beeswax+carnauba would do nicely, too.
Wow, Squidgirl, I don’t think I’ll be able to complain about how quickly my hands tarnish my whistles again. That goes way beyond my minor problem. I do think you should research how that anti-mosquito effect works. Might be very lucrative.
Daniel Bingamon makes whistle tubes that have a shellac or shellac-like coating. Mine has excellent grip and the coating seems to hold up reasonably well although I have managed to wear it off around the finger holes after years of playing. It has a Hoover Blacktop and is my favorite whistle for indoor playing.
When you burn through the shellac, clean it off with alcohol and put a new layer on.
Or get used to having a patina on your whistle. For some, it’s a mark of pride.
I try to view it that way – the whistles I like all have a broken-in look that reminds me of comfortably worn leather, or like a well-used tool.
Of course sometimes I think, “Gee, for all the use this whistle looks like it’s seen, you’d think I’d be a better player…”
For anyone with this problem who is interested, I can make you a titanium tube for a 1/2" whistle for $20-shipped (my cost on the tubing is nearly $16/ft unless I buy it in large quantities). That’s pretty much my cost when I include shipping, so this isn’t a commercial plug, so much as it is an offer for a solution.
The one thing to bear in mind is that you may need a thin wrap of teflon tape around the tube to make it fit your head snugly - especially for a Feadog head. The tubing I am using as of late has a slightly thicker wall (.022" compared with a standard brass whistle which has an average wall of .014"), but I have worked out a very good pattern for spacing, hole size, tuning, and intonation, and yes, you can cross-finger Cnat.
The titanium is nice because it is very strong, it doesn’t corrode, it develops a nice patina, and it can sound as warm as brass or as bright as aluminum, depending on how the whistle head has been configured/tweaked.
Anyone interested is welcome to PM or email me. Please do that for questions or comments too, as it was not my intention to jack this thread.