So I took my whistle on a recent camping trip, and after getting home I noticed that it has a considerable “funk” about it. Kinda smells like the clothes I was wearing during the trip. Think wet gym socks here.
I used to take my brass instruments and give them a bath periodically. Just put it in the bath tub with some warm soapy water and let it soak, then rinse, wipe dry, polish, and oil all the slides. Is it safe to do the same to my whistle? It’s a Kerry Optima, aluminum body, tunable, with a plastic fipple/mouthpiece. I could easily break it down into sections.
What would I use on the tuning section to make it slide easily? Can I use the same “tuning slide grease” that I would get for a brass instrument? My partner plays trumpet so I guess I could use some of his grease for it if it’s okay.
You can certainly give that whistle a bath with soapy water followed by a thorough rinse. Greasing a slide may not be a great idea. It attracts dust and grit which can make things worse.
Should I be worried about it scratching the pipe? It seems to have a thin coat of something on it already.
I prefer not to clean brass whistles with water (at least for any length of time, but on an aluminum whistle it should be fine. Funny story, Paul, the patina on the brass for my Busman was sticking, so I took a leaf out of my locksmithing book and used graphite to lubricate the slide. (Graphite is preferred for lubricating locks because it doesn’t gather grit but is very slippery).
Interesting about the not using grease. I use petroleum jelly on slides, but primarily apply it during the part that is not exposed to the air. Since reading your advice on another thread about being able to leave the whistles in two parts while not in use, perhaps it would be better to stop.
I do notice that when I buy a whistle from somebody who has recently polished it, the tuning slides don’t move as smoothly, I assume from polish residue, perhaps.
About the using water on brass whistles- I use everclear or very strong isopropyl alcohol. The reason is because most of it evaporates off quickly. I simply wipe down the whistle with isopropyl alcohol in a recorder cleaning sponge, or dental gauze. Then I wipe it all dry, and roll up a dry piece of dental gauze to dry the insides. Any small bit of alcohol left behind should evaporate extremely quickly, with only such a miniscule amount of it being water. It hasn’t caused any problems with my whistles in the few years that I’ve been doing it (about twice per year). I assume it will also remove germs that might build up over many months time from the hands, mouth, and air, and perhaps disolve any dirtiness better than water. It might work well for aluminium too, perhaps.
And farmerjones, one spot you want to be extra careful around is the ramp/blade and windway of the whistle. Those are areas you definitely do not want to scratch, or it can cause problems with the whistle, so it’s best to be gentle in those areas. A thin strip of cloth was recommended to me by another member on here for the windway, and it works very well. You can tie a piece of string to it and pull it through to clean the windway when it starts getting shmootzy, which will give moisture something to cling to in the windway and promote clogging… as will a scratch in the windway, hence being careful there.
Graphite seems like a reasonable choice if you do need some lube, but it’s dirty. I’ve tried teflon bike chain lube which dries non-sticky and that’s not bad. Still, I don’t usually use anything.
How about nose grease? A suggestion from Ronaldo 
I will now know you as “Nasty Nate”. 
Nose grease works well on cork woodwind joints. Never tried it on metal to metal slides though.
Sebum(nose grease) come with its own little colony of microflora. . . 
I like silicone for metal to metal joints.
Bob