Re: Cleaning Reeds

[wlgrogan@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx]

Rocket Rick,
	
	The acids in our mouths (everyone's mouth is at least slightly acidic)
can most definitely cause corrosion of the brass reeds.  However, brass is
neat stuff used in many orchestra instraments of course and for such things
a large boat propellers that run in the ocean (3.5% salt, VERY corrosive).
You don't see these objects made of brass completely disintegrate, so why not?
The main reason is that they do form a thin corroded film on the surface from
normal oxidation, but this sort of self-seals the underlying material and makes
it more or less impervious to further rapid corrosion.  Saying that, I wonder
if all of the bronze and brass statues out there aren't corroding more rapidly
than normal because of our increasing use of fossil fuels that produce acid
rain?  However, as stated above, these haven't completely disappeared yet
either, but stay tuned!
Regards,
Bill