Clarinet Cleaning with Brasso
Like most of the things I do on weekends, it was completely out-of-the blue that today's major activity should take place. I had a sudden idea to try cleaning the various badly-tarnished pieces of my clarinet with Brasso. I bought my clarinet on eBay about six years ago, and when it came, I realized it had badly tarnished chromework. It had brown rust spots, green rust spots, and an overall rough yellowish haze.

I have not been able to find much about this clarinet. I had searched the internet when I first received it based on its markings, which indicate it was made by "H. FREEMAN N.Y", a stamp indicating it was made in France, and the serial number 1723. Suffice it to say that there is no real information out there. The spattering of message board posts indicates it is probably about 50 years old, but that is it.

On to the cleaning. It became quickly apparent that it would not be possible to clean up the metalwork without getting a lot of liquid onto the wood body, so I disassembled everything. It took approximately three hours to clean the lower half. I will have to do the upper half at some other point; it is smelly and tedious work. Nonetheless, it worked very well, the clean parts really shine. The clarinet looks as it should, silver and black.

In other news, my one-year membership to the Carleton Athletics Centre expired today. The plan was to go three times per week over the last year, and I went three times per week with few exceptions. I have renewed for another year.