Does anyone else use Simichrome or Flitz to polish their bars. Simichrome seems to be a bit more abrasive but not overly so. The bars do seem to travel over the strings a bit better after a good polish/shine. I have used them on both plated and stainless but I do not have any nickel bars to see how they would work on those. Just curious.
Thanks, Phil
I've been playing just over a year and a half, and this is the first I've heard of polishing tone bars. Is it cosmetic or functional? How often am I supposed to polish my bars? Thanks
For me it is functional and not very often. I just look at the playing surface and if it is looking a bit grungy (a highly technical term) I give it a bit of a polish. I also base it on if the bar feels like it may be dragging a bit. On a normal basis I just do a bit of a shine on my pants leg.
Phil
No need to worry.
h
No worry at all Howard, just wondering If I was the only one annal enough to do this!
Try shining it using a dollar bill. Furnace techs do this on thermocouples, although they aren’t all that common anymore.
Barkeepers friend is the ultimate stainless cleaner. Great stuff.
Bought the dear daughter a high end set of stainless pans. She called after a week and threatened to toss them out as they looked dingy!
She tries the barkeepers friend and the wining stopped.
If it is bad enough, you could do it the same way as I do frets. Various grades of steel wool, getter progressively finer, then finish with an automotive cut'n'polish if you want. We used to polish mineral samples just using finer and finer grit paper, then progressively finer powders. The end result can be mirror like.
I never use anything abrasive to polish bars. Too risky for scratching. A good simple polish such as glass stove top etc. would probably be OK.
In my experience, of either alloy, I use some dish soap and hot water, then dry. This removes body oils, dirt and whatever other substances might be on there. Notice they feel much smoother as you dry them off.
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