TromboneChat

I just bought on old Oval shaped Baritone horn. It plays great.
3 Rotary valves all work, slide all pull ,but it`s raw brass and very tarnished.
What`s a good brass polish?

My favorite is Mr. Metal.

Blue Magic.

Good old Brasso works well.
But it is quite messy.
And it requires a lot of rags and plenty of ventilation.
So on second thought maybe I should try one of the recommendations myself.

Brasso is not good for the brass as some formulations contain ammonia.

Best bet is Meguires car polish, but make sure it contains NO abrasives!!

Wright's brass polish.

+1 for Wright's.

Once you remove that big coat of tarnish, periodic applications of lemon Pledge do pretty well at keeping the brass clean and nice-looking.

I use Flitz liquid... sparingly. A little goes a long way. Brasso may not be as bad as some say, but its smell is overwhelming.

If my horns had more exposed brass than they do (my skin doesn't eat through lacquer, it seems), I'd probably end up using more of my Wright's brass polish than just on the inner tubes. Nonetheless, that would be my go to on a raw instrument.

+3 for wrights. I did this project last year. (In full disclosures this was finished on a buffing wheel, but wrights got me 85% of the way there)





Cheers

Thrawn22 wrote: ↑Wed May 12, 2021 2:48 pmBlue Magic.

+1

Blue Magic is the product that many professional jewelers use for final finishing on brass; it's non-abrasive and yields a true mirror finish.

The guys in the buffing room at the King Factory used Brasso. When I used to do polish & lacquer overhauls I switched to Silvo. Made by the Brasso company but much finer.

"Non-abrasive polish" is nonsense. You're not dissolving metal oxides using solvents alone - if it's a product you rub on the object, it's abrasive. Some products are more abrasive than others. Blue Magic? 25-35% aluminium oxide.

Renaissance Wax afterwards if you want to keep it bright.

Protective wax option for your polished brass: Eagle One Superior Nanowax - carnauba wax in an easy-to-apply spray bottle. Works great on car finishes, furniture, kitchen cabinets, floors, glass, ... This stuff will maintain the shiny surface you have created - effective, long-lasting.

https://www.eagleone.com/all-surface-nanowax-spray

Note: It's also pretty effective at creating a (relatively) smooth slide on a plastic P-bone or Tromba trombone. Remove all the roughness from the brass stockings with a gentle abrasive (stockings only!); finish with fine (4-0) steel wool. Then spray the plastic inner slides and stockings with Nanowax and wipe dry with a microfiber cloth. You probably won't need any further slide lubricant or even water spray. [Of course you will never achieve 10/10 slide action on these instruments. ]

I wonder if regular brass polish will tear down the instrument lacquer? Maybe car polish is better since it's told to protect?

Leif

Brass polish (or even silver polish or toothpaste) will abrade the lacquer.

Auto polishes are intended to be gentle to paint, so it might work well if only the lacquer is scratched.

PLEASE do NOT use brass polish on a lacquered instrument!
Decades ago, I followed the lead of a fellow student trombonist and scrubbed the bell, etc. of my almost-new trombone with Brasso. Looked great for a few days - then it started to tarnish. I ruined the appearance of this once-fine trombone. I still regret my error to this day!

ithinknot wrote: ↑Fri May 14, 2021 9:34 am "Non-abrasive polish" is nonsense. You're not dissolving metal oxides using solvents alone - if it's a product you rub on the object, it's abrasive. Some products are more abrasive than others. Blue Magic? 25-35% aluminium oxide.

I stand corrected.

In the case of Blue Magic, the abrasives are so fine that I can blend unlacquered and epoxy-lacquered areas with no visible damage whatsoever to the surrounding epoxy lacquer.

I use Mothers Mag and aluminum polish on my Olds which has been stripped. I have also used it on my Yamaha 643 to bring the shine back to spots on the nickel outer slide where the lacquer is missing. A bit messy but easy to use and not, as far as I understand, abrasive.

My repairmen recommends a polish called Wenol. You can get it from Amazon.

lupusargentus wrote: ↑Sat May 15, 2021 2:48 pm I use Mothers Mag and aluminum polish on my Olds which has been stripped. I have also used it on my Yamaha 643 to bring the shine back to spots on the nickel outer slide where the lacquer is missing. A bit messy but easy to use and not, as far as I understand, abrasive.

I'd like to give my endorsement to Mother's mag on a stripped olds, here's a pic of the results!

I always used Brasso. Am I old or what.

Pmlee1954 wrote: ↑Wed Mar 23, 2022 3:53 pm I always used Brasso. Am I old or what.

Brasso is a bit more abrasive than some of the other things mentioned. In a lot of cases we are looking for a mirror-like shine with very little loss of metal.

Pmlee1954 wrote: ↑Wed Mar 23, 2022 3:53 pm I always used Brasso. Am I old or what.

Brasso is too abrasive. And will remove lacquer.

Once my horns are nice and shiny, I spray-coat them with a light coating of Eagle One Nanowax (also good for your car finish!).

Get a cream for brass- Wrights? The brasso leaves so much residue. Takes a long time to get that out. For your slide: Wrap a cheesecloth tight and use the wrights on the inner slide- better yet, I took a long gun brush and cut the wire handle end and stuck it in a hand drill- Just pour the cream on the brush and work up a nice lather! For cleaning out the handslide crook, fill it with warm soapy water and put it in the corner of the bathroom for the weekend. Monday pour it into the toilet and notice all the crap that was growing there! Who cars with the bell looks like, the slide works great!

Wenol

I use Wright's on my horns. Works great, not too overpowering, rinses off. Even if you don't have a bare horn, if you have tuning slide legs with years of dried-on slide cream, it'll cut through it nicely.

I've never had quite the gumption to try it on the insides of my outer slides, though: I've always used dry muslin or cheesecloth and left anything heavier for a chem clean. Will give it a try on a spare King 607 slide that's been temperamental ever since I got it.

I'll give the EagleOne Nanowax a try: I've tried Howard Feed and Wax before, but don't love the oil (even though it's orange oil).

Brasso in the UK is apparently (so I am told) less abrasive than the formula sold in the US, it also comes in rag form not liquid and is much easier to use than that which has been described as Brasso in the US. I also use Wrights - theres not much difference really but the fact that (UK) Brasso is already impregnated in a suitable polishing cloth means its slightly easier and cleaner to apply, so I tend to use Brasso for small jobs Wrights for bigger - with similar results. I use a car polish over here called 'MER' for the laquer, my guess is its similar to whats been mentioned here already by you US residents, Nanowax. This discussion also took place a few weeks ago in a different topic here somewhere... Doug

BGuttman wrote: ↑Fri May 14, 2021 3:16 pm Auto polishes are intended to be gentle to paint, so it might work well if only the lacquer is scratched.

I did a paint correction project with my daughter on her car and this is spot on. The modern (Maguires, Mothers, etc.) buffing and polishing products are designed to remove imperfections in auto topcoats. The auto industry used to use lacquer, but they use something different these days, some sort of polyurethane. Back in the day, car hobbyists would lay down 15-16 coats of lacquer on their cars, then buff and polish it up to a super shine.

My Bach 50's bell has long since lost its lacquer and I use Wrights when it starts turning dull. Then I use the Maguires 205 buffing compound followed by the 105 polish. The buffing compound is not as aggressive as the Wrights and the horn looks factory fresh when I'm done. I do this all by hand. In the past I've done all this with the different buffing bars, red, green, and white with my hand drill and a polishing wheel. I don't do that anymore--too afraid of bumping the bell

The Wrights seems less aggressive than any of the buffing bars. But, I agree that if it's making the metal shiny, there's some abrasives at work,