Hey! I`ve been searching over the internet, but didn`t find the answer I was looking for. English isn`t my native language, so I hope you don`t mind my faults. Well, this is the point, I`ve laid my flute on the piano, for a couple of months. I don`t play very much on it, so I haven`t used it since, until today I found out it was err... corrosed I think. It`got a brown glow, instead of silver, and is covered with black/brown stains/marks/stripes. Really ugly. I checked the inside, and that was good, but the outside is not good. So, what can I do about it? I dare not to try chemical products, it may only getting worse.

By the way, the flute is YAMAHA, I don`t know exactly what type, but it`s a beginnersflute. I think it is now about 10 years old.

It could just be tarnish so you could get a chemically treated cloth that should take it off. But if it`s rust you will have to bring it to a repairer or specialist to get it removed.
In future you could also get silver saver sheets which you leave in the case all the time and it prevents tarnish on the flute.
Leprachaun

Try cleaning it yourself with a treated cloth for the flute (don`t use anything that is not for the flute, there is a possibility it could harm it). If you can`t clean it this way, you will need to take it in to be professionally cleaned.

You should ALWAYS put your flute back into its case after you are finished playing. This will protect it from impurities in the air and keep from tarnishing and corroding so quickly. Good luck!

Thanks for your answers!!! I`m gonna get such a clothe immediately (and then hoping it`s not rust...)

Maybe you should clean it with a silver cloth?
DO NOT clean it with a silver polish...at least that's what my teacher told me...or the pistons will get stuck..

ANother point may be that this stufff on the flute isn't tarnish. Silver oxide is usually more blackish. I know that if I leave my flutes out of their case they get something on them that isn't tarnish. I think that it's some form of pollution present in this location because i've never had it at other places where I live. It comes off with a silver polishing cloth but much easier than the actual tarnish. I'm going to sau that it almost acts like an oil based varnish.

~Bilbo

So, built up tarnish on a flute is not what cause pitting? I was just asking my husband the other day this question. What does cause pitting?

Yes Micron but around here most of the silver "Tarnish" or Oxide is caused by Sulphur in the atmosphere and it didn't used to tarnish before the industrial age nearly as much as today.
From a web site:
http://www.du.edu/~jcalvert/phys/copper.htm

Both sterling and fine silver tarnish due to black silver sulphide forming on the surface. The sulphur comes from the atmosphere and is caused mostly by a gas called hydrogen sulphide which comes from vehicle exhausts and from chimney stacks. (Yes, and even some from people) The formation of tarnish is therefore worse in an industrial area.

I don't advise doing this to an assembled flute but from a John Burgess (Of Mapua, Nelson NZ) web site:
WASHING soda ("soda") is hydrated (combined with water) sodium carbonate - NaCO3.10 H2O.

BAKING soda is sodium bicarbonate - NaHCO3 - and can be converted to the carbonate (decomposed) by heating at 50-100 degrees Celsius (120-212 oF).

Baking POWDER is sodium bicarbonate plus a mild acid such as citric or tartaric acid, plus some starch.

You can use WASHING SODA in a hot water solution and place in it a piece of household aluminium foil together with tarnished jewellery to remove the tarnish.

NOw the impurities that are forming on the surface of my instrument when left out are not tarnish. It's more of a dark brown color like tobacco stains and I suspect is actually caused by vehicle fumes.
~Bilbo

just dump it in the bath tub with Mr. Bubble

"I would indeed call the brown stuff tarnish. It is silver oxide, silver iodide, silver bromide, or any one of many far more complex compounds which give colour to the surface of silver. I hardly think you can exclude them from a definition of "tarnish". I have often seen this brown look in finger-print shapes on the surface of flutes, indicating that it has definitely come from the fingers rather than the atmosphere. Whether it is from the salt (sodium chloride) in perspiration, or any one of many other agents in perspiration, or residue from handling some other material, I would not know."


Micron,
I guess the issue with this finish that can appear on my flutes from leaving them out is that you can't really assume what it is from your location. You are assuming that it is a chemical reaction of the silver with another chemical and I'm not. It could also be a pollutant on the surface that isn't reacting with the silver. It doesn't occour only where fingers are present and I'm not sweating on my flutes in the winter time here where the house temp is set to 64F.

Not chlorine sources in the immediate vicinity. Not even in the water supply.

Glad that we all agreed on not using that aluminum foil / washing method.
As I wrote: "I don't advise doing this to an assembled flute" and agree that it would not be good on a disassembled flute as well.

~Bilbo

So what causes pitting on a flute?

Without going into the details that Micron will, I'd assume that it is either bad plating job or a localized chemical / electrolytic reaction.
Another common issue these days is having the plating flaking off. Not much that can be done about these things short of replating or selling the thing on Ebay w/fuzzy photos in the Ad.
~Bilbo

Thanks Micron!
That is always something I wondered about. I just love science.

I wish my brain did that. Mine retains anything to do with flutes and thats about it. You could say I have a one track mind.