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Silver Polishing Options

28th April 2020

As Repair Technicians, or indeed as players, it’s important that we can maintain and refresh the silver plating on our instruments. Unsightly tarnish can slowly develop and become very stubborn to remove. In this blog & video we check out the best options for cleaning and polishing Silver Plate…

#1 – Silver Bath

The Silver Bath Pro (as shown in the video above) offers a strong and effective solution for smaller silver plated items. If you have particularly tarnished small keys, ligatures, pillars/posts or mouthpieces then this is a great solution.

Please Note: It’s quite a strong liquid so we advise wearing gloves at all times. Leave the item for 10 seconds or so and then rinse it thoroughly after using water and soap. You can then dry and polish up using a silver cloth if required.

#2 – Twinkle Silver Polish

This new ‘Twinkle Silver Polish‘ might be a more convenient option if you’re dealing with a larger part of an instrument or indeed the whole thing. It comes with in a small pot with a sponge dispenser. This makes it easy to use on large areas such as Tuba/Euphonium/Trombone bells or similar.

The sponge applicator pad is good to dab on the first layer then we would recommend polishing it off with a silver cloth. This Twinkle Silver Polish contains an anti-tarnish ingredient to help maintain a long lasting finish.

#3 Yamaha Silver Polish

Yamaha Silver Polish is an mild abrasive solution that is for use in tandem with a soft cloth. It contains a similar properties to the active ingredient in various silver cloths on the market. It comes in a long lasting, handy bottle and is very useful for cleaning both light fingerprints and for removing the heaviest of tarnish.

  • Yamaha Official Product
  • Ideal for Polishing & Cleaning Silver Plated Items
  • Use with Soft Cloth

#4 Silver Cloth & Elbow Grease!

A good old fashioned Silver Cloth can often be enough for general cleaning purposes. As you’ve read above it’s also good to combine a silver cloth with one of the other solutions for more stubborn tarnishing.

In general use, we’d recommend using a Silver Cloth once a week on silver plated instruments. If you’re a Repair Technician it’s one of the cloths that should permanently be on your bench. Our favourite is still the Denis Wick Silver Cloth as it offers a clean and effective finish with a long lasting material.