Would like to hear your opinions on this. How many of you think that letting your brass whistles get that ‘Patina’ from not cleaning them, makes them sound better? Some folks say they sound better that way. Other say that one should keep them nice and shiny to sound good.
Your thoughts?
Thank you for your imput…
James
A Stor Mo Chroi
Makes NO DIFFERENCE whatsoever. Really. Your time is better spend playing than polishing.
im relatively new here (and still owe an intro) but my latest whistle is MOSTLY patina. In other words, I dipped the thing in acid and turned quite a bit of the metal into something else. “Art” or “rust” will be in the eye of the beholder.
Point is, it sounds EXACTLY the same as it did when it was shiny brass… right before I had acid spewing all over my bathroom sink.
Not putting forth a definitive answer here… just one biased data point.
I don’t think it makes a difference. It might make people think I’m better than I really am with the patina on the whistle though. 
Yup, so much to learn and improve upon. Polishing brass isn’t on that list.
I don’t have any knowledge on this topic, but here’s what I think (ps. Don’t believe everything you think.) There is probably going to be some scholar of the whistle who will say the patina on the inside of the whistle and on the blade will affect the passage of air through the whistle body and across the blade. I don’t believe that the difference, if measureable, will matter a hoot to 99.99% of us. We’re just not pushing our whistles or abilities to the further edge. I can’t imagine that the patina on the outside of the whistle matter at all. Also, gunk is different than patina. Gunk would have big time affects. Keep your whistles clean.
Actually, the patina doesn’t make a whole lot of difference in the sound. If you really want to influence the sound of your whistle pay attention to your dominant clothing color. If you want to coax a sweet sound out of your whistle, wear something red. Think about it… cherries are red and cherries are pretty sweet. To make your whistle wail like the cries of a grief-stricken widow, wear black. That color is especially important for low whistle players. But whatever you do, stay away from plaids. Plaids should only be worn for jazz sets.
Damn, you were not supposed to let that information out into the public domain. We are meant to keep the newbies ‘practicing’ and purchasing/selling whistles so that we can buy cheap second hand… Next you will let slip the big secret that wearing green improves jigs and reels…
Whoops…
I only talked about two colors so as to preserve the mystery and let the OP discover how the other colors on his own.
But now you’ve gone and spilled the beans on the greens. 
I hope the OP takes it in moderation though. Once, when I was first starting out on whistle, I was wearing black shoes, purple socks, white pants, red shirt, and a green hat… I picked up my blue MK low D and wound up in hospital for a week.
Oh, and for obvious reasons, never Never NEVER wear orange and green together when you’re playing. I made that mistake once, yes I did…no you didn’t…yes I did…no you didn’t …ARGHHH!!! It’s happening again!!!
FWIW, gloves can make quite a difference without any of those colour-specific side-effects, and you should hear what mitts can do for those rare occasions when gloves aren’t enough…
If you really want to influence the sound of your whistle pay attention to your dominant clothing color.
What if you’re a nudist?
(trying hard to resist skin flute jokes, I really am trying…)
No, plaids work well but whatever you play will sound Scottish instead of Irish…
A very generous C&F member just sent me some older Generation whistles, one of which appears to be a pre 1980’s Eb red top. In addition to sounding almost as good as my Eb bluebird, it has a fantastic patina, complete with fingerprints. Just looking at it makes me want to find a session. It may not sound better because of the patina, but it looks like it would be right at home in a Dublin pub. I’ll never polish it.
Of course it sounds worse if you polish it - you should be practicing, not polishing and admiring the shine!
In case it is not obvious, I’m suggesting that any change in sound is due to the player and not the bling factor. YMMV