I’m sure this has been covered but searching either results in too many hits or none that help.
I have a solid silver, with white gold springs, boehm style flute. I need to find something I can safely use to get down between the keys and get rid of tarnish. Also something to help keep it nice and shiny.
Thanks for any help.
Best thing to do here is nothing.
You can put one of those 3-M anti-tarnish strips in your case to prevent more from forming, but keep the paste, treated cloths, and other goo away from your pads and (more importantly) your keywork.
A little tarnish won’t hurt either sound or longevity. When your flute needs an overhaul, or all the keys need to come for whatever reason, the repair person will shine it up nicely.
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Only a repair persun could really get rid of tarnish there safely. There’s too much of a chance that you’ll ruin these pads or bend the key-work somehow. How they would do it is to take all of the key-work off, and then give the flute a chemical cleaning.
On other areas of the flute (as in, away from the keys), you can use a non-treated cloth, possibly slightly dampened, to get rid of the dirt. If it isn’t lacquered, you can use a few kinds of silver polish there, too – but that stuff will ruin your tenons (however that’s spelled) and pads if it gets on them. Don’t use treated polishing clothes unless someone you trust who knows a lot about the repair of these types of flutes has said that particular type of cloth is okay – many end up scratching the flute, and doing other types of damage.
I’m curious, what brand of flute is this?
Sorry for the delay Rae. Gmeinhardt. If that’s spelled correctly.
I have a solid silver head, silver plated body TJJ flute, and find that it does tarnish around the areas that are difficult to get access to.
Using a silver cleaning cloth i tend to cut off a tiny sliver and either use a cotton wool bud, or blunt toothpick to gently clean some of the hard to access areas, otherwise i just leave it be. I know that it will come off when i rub it with a cloth, so when it goes in for a service, i’ll request they do the bits i can’t get at.
Best advice is already given. Do nothing - it’s too easy to damage all the little wires etc. All I do is gently and carefully rub down areas away from the keys taking care the cloth goes nowhere nears them. As someone else said, leave it for the professionals when your flute is overhauled. I did this recently and now have a wonderful shiny Takumi - for a while! The most important thing is to have it clean and DRY inside after playing so no moisture gets to the pads.
Sarah