I have a Muramatsu EX. I am tarnishing the flute very quickly. I am playing it a lot. I wipe it down everytime after I play it.

I have polished the tarnish off twice in the past 10 months. I don't want to keep doing this because eventually the plating will come off.

I was looking through some old posts about tarnishing problems with Muramatsu flutes. The link to the old pictures is dead. I would have liked to have seen some of those.

I talked to Muramatsu America on the phone about replating a flute. The customer service representative has told me that she has never heard of the plating wearing all the way through or becomming pitted on one of their flutes. So she can't answer my question. I wanted to know if it was possible to send the flute in to be replated.

I am still leaning towards a solid silver flute, but before I spend all the money, I want to hear everyones experience with tarnish on their flutes. I especially want to hear opinions on tarnish and Muramatsu EX flutes.

I love my flute. I love the way it sounds. I think that silver flutes are a little too bright unless they are heavy walled. But I might need to get something that my body is not going to destroy.

Opinions?

Stick a piece of chalk in your case with the flute.
The tarnish is from exposure to the elements and not your hands, fingers or oils.
Moisture is a big contributor also.

You can get an anti-tarnish cloth for silverware and lay it over your flute when you put it away. Or get a zip lock bag and poke a bunch of pin sized holes in it, then take those silca packs you get in your aspirin bottles or any other new purchase items and place those silca pack in the zip lock bag inside your case.

I already keep antitarnish strips in my case. I really do think that skin PH has a lot to do with how fast the flute will tarnish. I will try the silicone.

Thanks

in regards to tarnish all non ferous metals ie: silver gold used in flute makeing will tarnish unless its pure as in .9995 as the metal contains copper as a alloy. tarnish is oxidisation of the metal caused by exposure to air, oxygen compounded by the acids in your sweat the common cause of tarnish is usualy where you have come in contact with the metal and deposited sweat mixed with the oils in your skin and that leaves a thin film on the metal and over time it will discolour now if the acid level in your skin is high and it remains on the metal for a long period of time it can enter the crystal structure of the plateing now most silver plateing is done over copper as silver dose not plate well on the base metals most flutes are made from so when the copper underneath the silver plating starts to tarnish it creates small bubbles that easily flake of and and creates a small pit in the metal one way of stoping this from happening is to clean the keys with a anti tarnish cloth removeing all traces of acids and oils and then putting a fine film of clear nail polish over the keys there buy sealing the metal from the air and exposure to the acids and oils from your skin when the nail polish looks worn its easily removed by wipeing some remover over the keys and replaceing as needed i have done this to my flutes and it works well as a manufacturing jeweller and designer i work with these metals on a daily basis and trained in metalurgy at uni i hope this long winded explenation helps you and others that may have this problem