How To Clean Silver Flute
You can t put it back together and have all the pads still meet all the tone holes to make it playable.
How to clean silver flute. The candle wax picks up any dirt or grime that is on the joint and the rubbing with the cloth removes the wax and the grime. Use silver polish wrights silver cream and a q tip but do not get any water or polish on the pads. Stop after your remove all fingerprints and smudges and the metal surfaces look evenly shiny. To clean it gently unscrew the head joint and foot joint from the body of the flute then wrap a soft cotton or microfiber cloth around your cleaning rod. There is no way for the flute player to clean between the keys and remove tarnish without taking it to a flute technician and have them remove all the moving parts and dip the body in silver cleaner.
Now rub a few stripes onto the headjoint joint again and put your flute together. Polish each piece of the flute with a silver polishing cloth. Keeping your flute clean and minimising the development of tarnish is a constant process and players vary enormously in their dedication to doing this. Then using a cleaning rod flute swab or flute wand first wipe out the interior of your flute and then apply a little rubbing alcohol to remove more of the bacteria and gunk. Some people never clean their flute and at the other end of the spectrum some people clean it all the time.
It s crucial that a flute be played every day to prevent discoloration. If dark spots appear on the surface of the flute that can t be wiped off with a polishing cloth alone it may be effective to use a silver cloth and or silver polish which are sold separately. And if you try to be all handy and take the keys and mechanism off yourself you re in for a horrible surprise. Gently pass the cloth through each section of the flute twisting the rod to ensure any moisture inside of the flute has been absorbed. You should clean and maintain your flute after each use.
To use this cleaner add equal parts warm water and baking soda to create a paste. Rub a few stripes of the candle wax onto the joint on the headjoint then wipe off strongly with a rag. It is because of this that we make an optional quoted charge for removing tarnish. Pick up 1 piece of the flute and hold it in your non dominant hand. This mixture is then smeared over the surface of your jewelry item and left to seep into the metal for one hour.
While rubbing alcohol hydrogen peroxide soap and water or windex can be used for cleaning the exterior of your flute anti tarnish silver polish does the best job of keeping your instrument tarnish free and shiny. Silver cream does not hurt the flute and it extends the shine and life of the silver plating. Baking soda is one cleaning solution that effortlessly cleans both solid silver and plated silver.