Posted by Leland on June 29, 1999 at 16:34:12:
In Reply to: Polishing posted by Ryan on June 28, 1999 at 22:45:41:
What I've been hearing and what I use:
Lacquer: water & a cloth, Windex or a glass cleaner without ammonia, anything light. You can't really do much other than clean it because the lacquer is a version of paint, and it's not supposed to tarnish. If the lacquer goes bad, or if it starts to tarnish underneath, more drastic actions are necessary -- unless you want it to look unique. :-)
For all the metals below, water or windex can be used to clean off sweat, rain spots, whatever. Polishes & such should be used on a clean horn.
Silver: Hagerty's, Twinkle, Wright's, Flitz, a treated cloth for light stuff, Tarn-X (with reservations -- it's really, really harsh, and it's not truly a polish but more of an acid treatment). A plain white cotton T-shirt can actually do some good by itself.
Nickel: Nevr-Dull, Mother's mag & aluminum polish, Flitz, ...
Bare brass: Nevr-Dull, Mother's, Brasso, maybe anything that says "can be used on brass" on the bottle/can/keg. Nevr-Dull is amazing -- use it to get the tarnish off, then finish it with Mother's or something similar.
You can get these at a music store, department store, grocery store, or an automotive store. I got my nickel polishes at a truck stop (chrome-heavy semi trucks = great metal polish marketing opprotunity).
Any others?
Seeya,
Leland