Buffet English Horn Day 2 - 2/14/14

The universe's gift to me for Valentine's Day was a late opening at the shop due to snow, which meant I could still go in at my regular time (through some less-than-ideal driving conditions) and get some work done on the english horn. Today was a day just for cleaning. I cleaned both the upper and lower joints, then did some light polishing of the bore on the upper joint, which has some gouges in it. It looks like someone may have pushed a sharp implement up there, maybe in an attempt to remove a stuck swab. The damage isn't too severe, and after dressing and polishing it looks a lot better. The wood of the bore on the lower joint is pristine - I almost can't believe how nice it looks after cleaning.

Cleaning the keys was next. I simply ran them through an ultrasonic cleaner for a few minutes, rinsed, then immersed in silver dip to remove the built-up tarnish. This cleaning process is the reason I had to separate all the steel screws from the silver keys before cleaning, as the chemicals in the ultrasonic and the silver dip cause steel to rust very badly within a few hours of exposure. The keys came out great! 

Actually, in the right side of that picture you can see one steel rod that's pinned to its key (the C# touchpiece) and the little bit of rust that started to form after it was cleaned. Fortunately, that will come off.

Here's another shot of what they looked like pre-cleaning, as a comparison (though this one was taken without flash, d'oh!)