Hello! I have a Burke high D and a Guido Gonzato low D that I try on occasion. I’ve been applying Chapstick every couple of weeks to prevent airleaks. Is this an appropriate joint grease, or does something else work better and last longer? Best regards.
Mike
Chapstick as joint grease? The main ingredient is petroleum. This isn’t a problem if you frequently adjust, play, disassemble, clean the joints. But, if you let it sit for a while, it can cement your joint together.
Cork grease from a music store will work on just about all joints, and is safe for metals, plastics, wood, cork, etc. Inexpensive, and one stick or pot will last a long time. If you want to get fancy, for metal-to-metal joints, anhydrous lanolin is about as good as it gets, and can be found at the local pharmacy/druggist/chemist.
I’m new to serious whistle playing, but have a music education degree and years of experience playing saxophone, clarinet, and flute.
-Chris
I dunno about the Guido, but doesn’t Mike Burke suggest using Vaseline on his slides? Chapstik will build up, while Vaseline won’t and will do an effective job at keeping the O-rings from seizing for months at a time.
Chas is correct. Burke Whistle instructions suggest lubricating the o-rings and inside surface of the tuning slide with “a small amount of synthetic grease or petroleum jelly” monthly. Also suggests moving the tuning slide each time you play it to keep the o-rings from sticking.
Best wishes.
Steve
I’m sure Chapstick is fine. It’s white petrolatum - the same as the petroleum jelly that Burke recommends.
I use tube cork grease. It’s cheap, I prefer the consistency and convenience, and the minty smell reminds me of years of school band practice. 
Vaseline is messy, and synthetics sometimes have silicone, which is nasty stuff.
But you shouldn’t need grease for a good seal. The Burke O-ring takes care of that, and a good PVC joint should be air-tight. The grease is for lubrication, so don’t overdo it. Re-apply when the joint becomes hard to move, and wipe off the old grease to prevent build-up.
If there is any aluminum to aluminum contact, I use anti-seize compound made by Permatex. I have seen more than one whistle which had seized and the joint not moveable. There is an electrical bonding that can take place in aluminum to aluminum joints called seizing. The resultant corrosion which forms in the joint is aluminum oxide, which is carborundum. The anti-seize compound is in a grease base. I have had no problems with seizing by using it.
The Burke o-ring design eliminates the direct metal to metal contact. His recent designs also use a delrin sleeve at the joint area. The classic issue with older Burke whistle joints freezing up had to do with dried out or degraded o-rings, IME. It’s easy to avoid if you move the slide regularly.
Permatex might be overkill. Permatex makes several types of anti-sieze compounds. Some contain aluminum powders and copper compounds which I’d want to be careful with. It’s otherwise petroleum based anyway as you said.
I use both petroleum jelly (as Mike suggests) or the Chapstick-esque joint compounds on the Burkes. A little dab’ll do ya.
I’ve never had to grease my Gonzato whistles.
Feadoggie
I’ve been using something like this (silicon faucet grease) on my Burkes. Works great, lasts a long time, and I can play in any temperature from -100F to +400F.
(I did show a container of it to Mike Burke at the Dublin Irish Festival a few years ago and he said it was OK to use.)
It’s Ohio…it isn’t really that hot or cold 
Yes, silicone is amazing stuff. (It’s not “silicon”, by the way, it’s silicone.) But personally I wouldn’t put silicone anywhere near my body or skin, and certainly not near something that would be going in my mouth.
Yes … I’m sure silicone grease works fine as a grease. But it’s very messy. And the big problem is that silicone is “migratory”. That is, it tends to end up in places where you didn’t put it, where you don’t want it, and it’s very difficult to remove. It is also volatile, and off-gasses into the surrounding space. I don’t want the insides of my whistles coated in a fine layer of silicone.
This is why auto body paint shops ban silicone products and use silicone-free formulas like Meguire’s. Volatile silicone settles on surfaces and prevents paint adhesion. Auto shops even ban employees’ use of conditioning shampoos, as conditioners are usually silicone-based. And instrument luthiers know that silicone polishes can make finish repairs difficult or impossible.
To me it’s just not worth it, since safer alternatives like cork grease and Vaseline work perfectly well. I just don’t want silicone around any of my instruments.
I do wonder about this stuff: http://www.amazon.co.uk/La-Tromba-Special-Woodwind-Instruments/dp/B004R9HTLI (can just make out that it says “with silicone” on the label). Is that a warning (as in ‘may contain nuts’) or a selling point ? They make cork grease too but I haven’t seen the label.
(there is a possibility that I am missing something here…)
This is supposed to be bore oil? Holy crap. 
There is only one left in stock! How much damage was done, I do not want to know. I bet it looks nice and shiney outside the bore though.
Possible topic drift, but I didn’t start it. I noticed silicone on the label because of a reference to it being bad for wood, specifically that of woodwind instruments (Its here: http://www.beafifer.com/boredoctor.htm , numbered para. 5). But the only other problem I have heard of is it being a menace in auto-paint shops. In a pure form seems to be almost as non-toxic as things get.
Whats the problem ?
IIRC someone who posts regularly on the Flute forum mentioned using a commercial bore oil with silicone.
Well, I can speak only for myself. I’m not concerned about contact toxicity, which is apparently low. I simply don’t want silicone migrating all over my stuff where I don’t want it.
With repeated application as a joint grease (on topic), it may creep into the head and tube and off-gas as a VOC. When playing whistle quickly there’s a certain degree of inhalation through the bore when grabbing breaths, and I don’t want to be taking volatile silicone into my lungs as a physical, if not chemical, toxicity risk.
To be honest, I don’t know how significant this is. But I’ve no desire to use a silicone lubricant when there’s no practical advantage I can see over the others that work perfectly well for the purpose without the risk.
When storing instruments together, I don’t want silicone polishes or lubricants migrating - to their cases, to my guitar’s wood and strings, to my concertina’s wood and reeds, etc. The stuff feels nasty and artificial to the touch and it comes off on your hands. And I don’t want to jeopardize future repairs by making them more difficult because of silicone penetration.
As I said, just my personal POV.
Silicone never stops creeping. Put some silicone on a table surface and over days, months, and years you will eventually have a table surface with silicone everywhere. It’ll also creep through the tiniest of openings where e.g. water would easily stay out. So I would fully expect that silicone applied to anywhere in the whistle would at some point cover the entire inside of the bore. Anyway, that’s only from my own experience from inspecting places where I’ve myself used silicone in the past. It’s incredible stuff, and nasty at the same time - incredible at the start, and nasty later.. difficult to get rid of too!
These days I only use silicone when it’s part of a solidifying gel of some kind, e.g. of the type used as sealants in wetrooms and kitchens. And even there I would be careful with exactly what I’m applying, and to where.
-Tor
(Edit: typo)
I must be the only person who doesn’t use any kind of lubricant for my instruments. In fact I carefully remove any lubricant. I believe it attracts small particles and thus actually increases the chance of a joint seizing. I’ve never had any problems as a result.
I have been reading around and am left thinking of that as the important issue (maybe the only one). If a wooden whistle (or flute) cracked would silicone penetration prevent a repair with, say, cyanoacrylate adhesive ?
Yes.