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Polishing Nickel keys at Home

At least the gold plated springs I could glimpse in your photos looked in perfect condition...
That's the puzzling bit about the instrument. The wood looks very good (maybe a bit dry), the springs look good, the screws don't look bad either, but the keys must have reacted with something... :-?
 
I recently picked up an early LL, just like yours (triangular sheet metal trill key guide - later was squareish, then barrel shape) . Except mine was silver plate.

Upon 20 foot away inspection the keys looked horrid. And of course even worse up close. They were so badly corroded with "chunks" of corrosion it looked hopeless.

I didn't even realize they were silver plated until i got half way through the restoration process !!

The first step I do is i use a tumbler. In this case several repeated processes. This makes the keywork, in many cases, "look like new".

Then it goes through a 3+ step buffing wheel machine process. With a heavier grit, them light, then polishing compounds.

when it comes out of the tumbler it usually looks pretty good by backwards comparison but the other phases really brings out the high luster and super smooth feel.

Anyways, the first phase (repeated) cleaned it up pretty good though all the finish was foggy. And there was still "chunks" of corrosion.

The red grit polishing on the wheel got rid of the chunks and then i started noticing it was silver plated. basically a "oops" I gotta be more careful to not polish away the plating. I can use some heavy pressure with nickel plating to polish but silver plating I have to be alot more careful, of course this depends upon the thickness.

I learned from Anderson's silverplating about the color of silverplating and how it varies depending upon thickness and stuff like that. This silverplating definitely was on the "bright" side thus was much thinner (no triple silver plating).

So after i changed strategies it really brought out the luster in the keywork.
BUT, upon inspection you can still see some of the pitting that goes beyond the silver plating.

It's a beautiful instrument though, visually and tonally .. I'll put some before and after pics soon.

It also just got mated with a silver plated A from the same era.

But one thing I learned was that you can never really tell how the plating is until you get it polished, even if the keywork looks tan and green from decades worth of "corrosion"
 
I recently picked up an early LL, just like yours (triangular sheet metal trill key guide - later was squareish, then barrel shape) . Except mine was silver plate.

Okay, I did some buffing with rouge and I *think* it is silver-plated indeed - the non-exposed parts of the LH spatulas revealed intact and glossy plating with a silvery luster, but it's not nearly as beefy as with my Marigaux.

So okay, I assume it is silver then. The pitting, however, is really bad on some spots, I can't get no shinier than silky, with quite a bit of the underlying metal shining through.

After browsing around, I ordered some rub-on silver solution; if that doesn't work we have some other stuff in the house that might profit from a touch-up. It's substantially cheaper than an electroplating kit, food safe...we'll see.
 
After browsing around, I ordered some rub-on silver solution; if that doesn't work we have some other stuff in the house that might profit from a touch-up. It's substantially cheaper than an electroplating kit, food safe...we'll see.
Small update - got the bottle I ordered, it's a Sheffco stencil.

Rubbed it onto the bare brass underneath the silver-plating of my Bettoney bari - it does indeed cover the yellowy parts nicely, leaving a rather uniform surface. Similar to the "wet finger" tool on some software paint applications. Multiple applications recommended, but it's a nice and fast way of touching up the finish a bit.

Rubbed it onto the dull/worn parts of some nickel-plated keys (namely register and Ab throat key) on a Bundy clarinet. Yellowy/grey spots completely recolored, will see if multiple applications would make the dull parts disappear completely. Again, not bad for a 5 minute job.

The keys on my main victim - the LL - however, well, they first require some serious buffing. The plating is - expectedly - simply not thick enough to fill up all the eroded parts. Just as we're getting more wrinkled each day, this instrument will continue to show its age...a bit of oil of olay can't hide everything. :)
 
Update - I'm about to refurbish her. Had a noodling with her yesterday (in original sorry state) and now I've given her a bath and am reassembling her.
Polishing proves to be, uh, a lost battle, though.

I think I call 'er "Susan Boyle". May not be a classical beauty, but boy can this lady sing! Guess it's a keeper - who wants to buy a clarinet with wrinkled keywork anyway?
 
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Polishing proves to be, uh, a lost battle, though.
......

If you lived a few kilometers (and time zones) closer I'd try polishing her up for 'ya

That pitting isn't nice to look at but I don't feel it under my fingers for my LL.
 
Okay, I did some buffing with rouge and I *think* it is silver-plated indeed - the non-exposed parts of the LH spatulas revealed intact and glossy plating with a silvery luster, but it's not nearly as beefy as with my Marigaux.

So okay, I assume it is silver then. The pitting, however, is really bad on some spots, I can't get no shinier than silky, with quite a bit of the underlying metal shining through.

After browsing around, I ordered some rub-on silver solution; if that doesn't work we have some other stuff in the house that might profit from a touch-up. It's substantially cheaper than an electroplating kit, food safe...we'll see.

I have used the Silver Smith plating solution from Caswell and it looks nice after rubbing the cleaned piece, but it rubs off very easily since it is so thin. On instrument parts that do not come in contact with the player it works quite well.

I have wondered about using the Silver Smith on keys and then coating with 2 or 3 coats of clear lacquer, but have not tried that yet. Eventually I would like to get a silver plating set-up to do my own silver plating on keys and small parts.

Being a perfectionist (a congenital defect I was born with) I would sand the keys to remove the pitting completely, buff them and then have them replated. In my world good enough never is. :)
 
If you lived a few kilometers (and time zones) closer I'd try polishing her up for 'ya
Thanks, that would've been nice. On the other hand, polishing that kind of pitting would be like converting alpine Switzerland into a Salt Flat - you'd end up with the bare brass (or nickel silver, whatever) underneath.
That pitting isn't nice to look at but I don't feel it under my fingers for my LL.
Neither do I. The non-touchpiece parts cleaned up rather nicely, and I don't really mind the rest. As said, I decided to keep it, as it is such a nice player.

Besides, Peter Eatons may have one "nail file" touchpiece (L/H F/C), I have about 14 of them. Hehe.
 
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