kadleck

Folks -

Please excuse the "novice" question. I'm preparing to sell some instruments and mouthpieces that have been sitting around for years. What is the best way to polish gold plated items that have tarnished? I've used Haggarty's on silver and it seems to be pretty good, but I have no experience with gold.

Thanks -
Tony

MJ

Tony, I had to polish some bling last week A Gold plated trumpet in particular. I went to Zales and they had a Gold Polishing cloth that worked very well.

kadleck

Cool ... thanks Mike.

tpter1

How about a silver polishing cloth on a gold m-piece? Is that a no-no?

Fudleysmith

What I discovered is that the corrosion that I observed on my goldplated mouthpiece rim is actually from the silver plate underneath the very thin gold plate.

I was advised to use Silvo (supposedly a finer grit abrasive than many other metal polishes) and stop as soon as I was satisfied that the corrosion was no longer noticeable.

Using 3M anti-corrosion strips when storing horns and mouthpieces has been a great help in preventing recurance.

Tootsall

Oh man... Silvo is the second last thing I'd use on gold plate (Brasso is the first last thing!) That stuff is abrasive and gold is soft. If there is corrosion or (more likely) tarnish in the silver UNDER the gold, there is really no way to remove it except just that... remove it and replate.

When getting a price on gold plating make darn sure that it includes all the preliminary prep and cleaning: that's where most of the costs are "concealed" and, as with most things, the devil is in the prep work before plating. If Leigh were still responding in the forums he'd tell you that in no uncertain terms.

For cleaning the gold plate on my horn I just wash it... there is NO tarnish underneath. I've heard some folks say that Tarnishield works well on gold (I know it's great on silver). You just wash the horn, wipe the stuff on, let it dry, then rinse and LIGHTLY buff any residue off. NO ELBOW GREASE!

For light touch-ups, a light fogging and wipe down with CLEAN microfiber cloth.

Solar Bell

Um...a well respected trumpet maker told me to use a non ammonia glass cleaner, such as Glass Plus, or The Works for Glass.

That and a lint free cloth.

Make sure it is a non ammonia cleaner.

It works for me.

-cw-

Clarino

Slightly off topic (many apologies), but why is Leigh no longer visiting the site?

KJaeger

This is what I have used as well. Just apply the Tarnishield and leave it on for a few minutes, and the dark stuff comes right off when you rinse. The buffing only needs to be done gently and lightly - too much effort and eventually you may wear away the gold and reveal the silver underneath, particularly if the polish has a substantial amount of particulates ("grit"). I don't have any experience with Haggarty's so I don't know how abrasive it is.
I find with gold (as opposed to silver, which seems to need regular polishing) that the clean microfiber cloth already mentioned is all that is needed for day-to-day maintenance.

Tootsall

Clarino; I don't have first-hand knowledge from Leigh but others have spoken of the enormous work-load that he presently has. If you've been following Alex's messages you'll know that he's hard at work with the piccolo trumept and he has quite a backlog in the shop as well. Rather than spend his valuable time in the forums he's kinda busy at the shop!

Chuck.. that same "well respected maker" told me the same thing and it does work, particularly if the smudges are especially heavy or old. I just don't use it when I'm giving the horn the "full bath" treatment.