Gaucho Viejo

To quote Britney "I think I've done it again". Went by the pawn shop last night and they had a 1937 King Liberty; silver with the "square" art deco bracing and the gold wash inside the bell. It was very dirty and tarnished under the dirt. All of the slides were fixed in place and the valves were gummy slow. There were no dents (except for a couple of minor blemishes in wierd places that looked like someone got careless with their mouthpiece or something. I walked it out of there for $200 (in the vintage alligator case).

When I got it home I tried some penetrating oil on the slides and was able to remove only the main tuning slide. I removed the valves and gave them a very serious cleaning; they are some kind of gloss-polished steel (looked almost like a chrome finish) and after I had gotten the past 70 years of gunk off of them and of the casings they were virtually "frictionless". The body I put in a hot sudsy tub and then polished with silver polish. It seems to be some kind of satin finish with gloss areas and some pretty nice art deco engraving.

I have a couple of questions: where can I get appropriate cork and felt replacements? One of the corks disintegrated upon removal and the other five (two per valve) look like they would too if I weren't careful. The felt rings (6) have become compressed over time and I don't think I can "reconstitute" them. The springs (bottom) look pristine so I'm not going to mess with them. I guess I can live with frozen slides but if you all have some wisdom for breaking up the sludge I'd appreciate any advice you can give.

Oh, incidentally, this thing really plays nice as well (I know, that's supposed to be the first consideration and it was but, from a design standpoint, it's very eyecatching and easy to get lost in its appearance). This has been lengthy, maybe I should get back to work . . .

Tim