I head acetone works pretty well. My method has just been to clean the cymbal with Barkeeper's friend and a cheap, work scouring pad till the logo is gone.

Never, never, never use a scouring pad on a good cymbal. Using one on a mediocre cymbal would be bad enough, using one on a valuable vintsge cymbal would be almost criminal. Scouring pads leave swirl marks and will take off metal,. Even using Scotch Brite will leave the surface of a valuable cymbal permanently scarred.

Ugh...no scouring pad! That will scratch the cymbal. I've used nail polish remover with much success, no harsh scrubbing required (I just rubbed it with my fingertips and it came right off). Be prepared to clean the ENTIRE cymbal for a uniform look. If you want a patina to form quickly, you can also use a mixture of lemon juice and vinegar. Make sure to rinse the cymbal thoroughly when you're done...

I think nail polish remover contains acetone. While I don't believe it will hurt your cymbal, breathing it is not good for you. So make sure you do it in a ventilated space.

Nail polish remover IS acetone. Same chemical. It just costs more per gallon because of the package size it comes in, and the target market. And yes, only use it in a well ventilated area.

Note that if the ink logos have been on the cymbal for 10 years you may experience ghosting when you remove them. The areas under the ink will not have the same "aged" look the rest of the cymbal does, so they will still appear -- but as lighter than the rest of the cymbal. This may or may not worry you.

If it worries you the only solution I know of is to remove all the patina (the lemon juice and vinegar will do this for you -- it removes patina if it is there). You end up with a shiny cymbal and start again to get the entire surface to age to the same color. Once all the existing patina is gone then you can use lemon juice and vinegar to add a uniform patina. Strange that the same solution can be a patina adding or removing formulation, but there it is. The outcome depends on the existing state of the surface.

Note that I don't recommend rushing in on the artificial patina experimenting unless you are in for the long haul. It may not be satisfactory the first time.

If you like your cymbals very shiny, then just get them shiny enough and the ghosting shouldn't be a problem.

I took a Sabian stamp off just last month, used a soft cloth and some Kitten auto paste.. then I Groove Juiced the whole Cymbal..

Easy Job to do

Cheers

Nail polish remover CONTAINS acetone. I suggested nail polish remover because you can buy a small container of it, which is cheaper and more convenient to store/use than the smallest, quart-sized jug of pure acetone you can buy at the hardware store. I've never used pure acetone, due to the constant availability of nail polish remover in my house, but I have used one of those metal jug containers of other chemicals similar to what the acetone comes in, and I can report that it is MUCH easier to use the nail polish remover container. But, yes, you are using the nail polish remover for the acetone it contains...

I was wrong. I acknowledge your superior accuracy of wording, Caddywumpus. And your challenge was most valuable because I went and read some things and discovered the situation is more complicated than I thought. So thanks.

The active ingredient in most nail polish is acetone. I live in a different country from you, and here I can buy a small glass bottle of acetone. It is 100 mL. The label says (among other cautions) Contains: 100% Acetone. It comes from what you would call a Pharmacy. It costs less than the cost of nail polish remover (packaged as such) which may also contain a number of other chemicals which aren't relevant to removing logos (such as oils, scents and coloring). On the other hand, our friendly Wikipedia tells me that nail polish removers may also be based on ethyl acetate in non acetone based nail polish removers. The non acetone based ones may also have isopropyl alcohol. The non acetone based nail polish is probably not what one wants for logo removal, although I just buy acetone so I don't need to read nail polish ingredients accurately to make sure which are acetone based.

wiki ref (but you have to scroll down to the section on remover)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nail_polish

Since I don't know what the situation is where drumguy60 lives, I can't say what it available to him.