Zinegar on my 16"

I am knowingly taking the longest route to clean my vintage Zildjians.

But after the 90 minutes of athritic irritation, I began to consider the alternative.

I looked into the Muriatic Acid suggestion by reading everything I had time to read.

The following is my opinion based on what I read.

I feel pretty confident that Muriatic Acid is the fastest way, may be the only, to completely remove the tarnished spots.

From what I understand, muriatic acid is hydrochloric acid, a lower quality grade form available in retail stores and sold as an asphault cleaner. The process to clean asphault is to wet the surface and cut the solution to with 20 parts water because it is highly caustic. The warning list is long... Do not get it on your skin. Do not breath it. etc, etc.

Even as a fireman,the more I read, the more I became concerned. I have access to all the protection gear I would possibly need, including SCBA. It was not about protecting myself. I started to think that buying two gallons of this stuff (as it is packaged) would put me in a position of having alot of unused product. I did find a friend with a friend who could point me to where I could find smaller quantities.

The chemical reaction of muriatic acid on brass will remove the tarnish. But it can also weaken the metal. I read that Muriatic Acid is used to break scrap brass (an alloy of copper and zinc) down into copper.

There was an interesting discussion about the pros/cons of using the acid to clean shell casings and warnings about its use.

I am sure there is a point in the chemical reaction when the alloy weakening begins. Any point before that, you would be fine, any point after, the door opens for cracks especially when you bang on it with a stick or ignite gun powder in it.

Finally, I read that removing all the acid was not easily accomplished with water. It should be neutralized and baking soda was recommended.

The chemical reaction is what I needed to remove the tarnish but not to negatively impact the molecular structure of the brass alloy.

All things considered, my next step was to experiment with vinegar.

My tools included a gallon of white vingegar, an old windex bottle, a large bottle of table salt, a sponge and a wash tub.

I took pictures in between the following applications...

First application, vinegar was sponged liberally onto the cymbal and rubbed on the darkest of spots before rinsing with water.

Second verse, same as the first.

Third application vinegar was sprayed on and allowed it to sit for 5 minutes, then rinsed with water.

Forth application vinegar was sprayed on the and allowed it to sit for 5 minutes, then sprayed on again, then using the sponge, rubbed the darker spots. The scrub side of the sponge was used on a couple black spots which lightened them but not much. More vinegar was appled and allowed to sit another 5 minutes and then rinsed with water.

Fifth application was a much longer soaking. I sprayed and let it sit for 2 hours and rinsed.

The sixth time, I soaked again for 15 minutes and then applied salt and vinegar to the sponge and scrubbed the tarnished areas.

And that concludes todays efforts.

There is still tarnish around the edge.

Here are the photos of the progress.

This morning, I look at the results and say to myself, on one hand, if the cymbal had come this way, I would have done nothing to it. On the other hand, I want to try to remove the finger print tarnish around the edge.

At the 8am drill, I asked my fellow firefighters about what they use on brass. Lots of great suggestions. One we demonstrated was Nevr Dull.

Strong stuff.

I picked a can up at Walmart on the way home and used one small piece on the remaining tarnish along the edge.

It left a black film that needed wiped off and really took if down to the bare metal.

I find that the cymbal is now more susceptible to water spot tarnishing where I had applied the Nevr Dull.

This was a little more than I wanted.

A couple new photos were added.

I also began work on the 18" cymbal today.

You my friend are going to be laboring foreva,...unless you completely seal off that or any cymbal from outside air that contains oxygen,..all the cleanning in the world will net you a tarnished cymbal in a short period of time, especially where you touch it !!

People have tried useing poly, vacum sealed plastic ***lery coatings, even adding Silver to the metal,...Unless you submerge that thing in wax or glass, you`ll be chaseing that .."one day shine" ...every day !!

Your cymbal is Bronze, not Brass,... !!

j.e.w.lery get`s censored ??? WTF !!

Thank you OddBall for your comments and clarifications.

Truthfully, labor this is not. I was being facetious when I claimed "arthritic irritation'. Fact of the matter, I am enjoying the restoration as a hobby and learning experience.

And thanks for your editorial clarification. It was unintentional to imply cymbals are brass. I found that more articles discussed the effect of muratic acid on brass than bronze.

Bowing

An alternative route on the 18"

Tonight, in a little over an hour, Nevr Dull accomphished what took hours with vinegar.

Photos of before and after.

The shine is a little over the top for my taste but as I am learning, it will only last a day.

The cymbal looks great,..If you look carefully the cymbal has latheing horizontally and inside that latheing groove is knurling too,...that`s where all the oils from your hands and grit like to hide and are really tough to polish to a shine.

You can use a LIQUID ONLY car wax to help keep down the fingerprints and prevent groove build-up. when you clean them occationally, the wax takes all the grit and oils with it and you just re-apply and polish again.

Put the wax on the cloth not the cymbal. Little bits at a time and it will spread as you polish.

Cymbals will never stay bright and shiney, to do so will in time remove too much material. Afterall , we buy them for the way they sound or we wouldn`t need them !!

You kit`s gonna rock, and you did fine with the restro !! I keep a couple of new , but soft paint brushes in my drum bag because it`s easy to dust off the kit with them and your kit just like ours will get dusty too !! The paint brush gets under the t-rods and the top of the lugs, all the hardware !! Soft one OK !!

Oh,...I use Muratic acid to clean brick or cement, I would never use it on my cymbals because it wont kling to them,...it just runs off !!

Hi-hat Cymbal Cleaning and Adjustment

Took a slightly different approach on the sweet sounding hi-hat cymbals today.

The patina was a consistent untouched 1960s look all the way around except for a 2 inch in circumference area from what appeared to be a soda (pop for those of you from Pennsylvania) spill.

Hesitantly, I lightly wiped top and bottom with Nevr Dull with just a little extra pressure on the sludgy area.

The results were not as shiny as the 16" & 18". I intend to leave them like this knowing I can shine them a little more later.

After reassembly I played to Bowie Golden Years and Ashes to Ashes listening for the impact of the cleaning. I expected, removal of the oxidation to result in less damping, and a brighter acoustic resonance. Although still sweet sounding, if there was a difference, it was not audible to me. Possibly if the oxidation had been more pronounced it might have been more noticeable.

What I did notice was the pull rod was swaying slightly as I played. I disassembled and raised the silencer sleeve 6" to a point just below the flange tilter bushing thinking this would alleviate the sway. Just the ticket. The upper cymbal now maintains a consistent position and contact with the lower cymbal. The result is a softer, smoother, more lush sizzle as the cymbals make contact.