Hey Piko,
Just a quick question. When you soaked your Armstrong in backing Soda, how long did it take till the tarnish came off?

I thought I would try this method since I just got a flute in that is all black with tarnish. It has been soaking for about 4 hours and it doesn`t look like much if any has come off. Maybe it it too tarnished?

You have to make sure that do it in an aluminum pan or that you line the bottom with aluminum and spread backing soda all around.

Tooth paste is actually much much quicker for spot tarnish removal, just dilute it in a bit of water (1/4th a shot glass) and soak a qtip to scrub out tarnish.

If you have a junk flute... see how pure toothpaste and a sponge affects its finish. That will remove tarnish instantly, but there is supposedly a rish of abrasion.

I used pure toothpaste on my piccolo to remove solid black tarnish on all the keys in seconds with no ill effect.

"You have to make sure that do it in an aluminum pan or that you line the bottom with aluminum and spread backing soda all around"

Thanks, I did that already. I have special Haverty polish that I use to take off stuborn tarnish, so I ended up using that instead. I usually use this, but it is a LOT more expensive then Baking Soda, so I thought I would try the whole Baking Soda thing. It didn`t work very well.

I am actually working on a Jupiter 611RBS. Someone left it out of the case for who know how long, so it was black. I have been working on this flute since 6o. It was a mess!

Correction, I have been working on this flute since 6:00. I don`t know how that little smiley face guy got in there?

For the baking soda electrolyte in an aluminium pot, simmering is usually specified.

Note that aluminium must be present, and the flute must be contacting it. Tinfoil will not do.

It works - well.

But....

Polishing actually removes the tarnish, which is silver that has reacted with (usually) sulphur from the atmosphere. The baking (or washing) soda and aluminium trick turns the tarnish BACK into silver.

If the tarnish was a bit rough, then the result will be somewhat rough silver, with a whitish look, that still needs polishing. However this polishing is a lot easier than polishing off the tarnish.

Note what is said here re setting the instrument up for quicker future tarnishing though:

http://www.silversmithing.com/care.htm#Electrochemical

There is a lot of other interesting stuff on that site re care of silver, but remember the site is for jewelry and silverware rather than flutes, which have some complications such as pads, corks, etc.

Thanks Jernie for posting that site. I have come across that site before and it is very interesting.