[Harp-L] How to Clean Tarnished Reed Plates

[Michelle LeFree]

Bob Marsolais wrote:

> I made the mistake of cleaning the reed plates from my Manji in an
> ultrasonic cleaner using jewelry cleaner diluted weaker than the
> instructions said to dilute.  The stainless steel reed plates are nice and
> shiny but the reeds themselves are very tarnished.  Is there a safe way to
> remove the tarnish without damaging them?  I've thought of using a very fine
> abrasive like toothpaste and very carefully with little pressure brushing in
> the direction of the reed away from the weld, but I imagine that's rather
> risky.  Any thoughts?  Perhaps I'll just leave them like they are.

Bob, if I were you I would ~definitely~ leave the reeds alone.

Little story. I recently sent a used harmonica to Joe Spiers to do his 
reed magic. I decided that the first thing he'd do would be to clean the 
reed plates up as they were pretty well oxidized. So I gave the reed 
plates a good scrubbing with Barkeeper's friend (like Ajax with Oxalic 
acid added). BF will give brass reeds and reed plates a nice shine.

The harp played great of course, but Joe told me that in removing the 
corrosion/oxidation from the reeds and reed plates I had unintentionally 
made his job more difficult. Why? Because that patina actually acts to 
reduce the clearance between reed and plate!

You may have inadvertently made your harp work better. I might have to 
try it!

Michelle

ps: