I won a 1965 solid silver (plated keys) Armstrong on Ebay and the keys where so tarnished I would go far as to say the tarnish was almost a plating in itself.

Piccolo Before:
http://members.cox.net/wrp1955/armpiccalo5.jpg

Using plain ol` toothpaste and and a q-tip. The tarnish rubs right off like nothing leaving not a scratch.

Piccolo After:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/sylvangale/

There are dozens of formulations of toothpaste. Some may be harmless, but others may be quite damaging.

Did this toothpaste happen to have baking soda?

There is the baking soda trick for removing tarnish that involves baking soda and water.

Perhaps that active ingredient is really doing all the work, while the rest of the paste just gives it that minty fresh smell.

Plain ol` Colgate. I usually just use diluted toothpaste for my headjoint riser. I was pleasantly suprised at how well full strength toothpaste knocks out really bad tarnish.

Yes, it probably does, because it contains a reasonably aggressive abrasive. After all the surfaces it is DESIGNED to clean - tooth enamel - is far harder than silver.

I suggest you use a strong magnifying glass and take a look at what it is really doing to the surface. Compare this with sa Goddards Silver Cloth, or Haggerty`s silver plish, on an area that has NOT been abused with toothpaste.

Brasso works really fast on silver tarnish too, but it launches a reaonable attack on the silver surface as well. This is because it is designed for brass, not silver. Likewise, toothpaste is formulated for cleaning tenacious material from a specific hard surface, not for silver.

Arak, why do you insist on changing your name every five seconds? It is annoying and childish.

Bah! Even with a portable 30X microscope there are no dicernable differences between the surfaces I treated with toothpaste and those I did not.

Bear in mind this is a 40 year old piccolo.

I would not allow any of my instruments to get to the condition where it NEEDED toothpaste to get cleaned. But if a flute gets that heavily tarnished... toothpaste can only help.

Guys,
I`d be real cautious about advising toothpaste as a polishing material for others who hang around here. It may seem to work but as pointed out by another poster, it may create micro-scratches which can tarnish even faster the next time requiring even more polishing. The increased abrasion will remove the plating much quicker on the plated instruments reducing their value.

Even more importantly, polishing near the pads can ruing them quickly and using any cream-type polishes (including toothpastes) on the areas near the mechanism pivots can make the keywork sluggish or even stuck solid. However on the good side, the instrument will look pretty & shiney.

~Bilbo