Until I picked it up, this tuba had been in storage since the 80s and developed a very thick layer of dark black tarnish. The inside was coated in lime. Using some rubber stoppers, a brush and cleaning vinegar, I was able to clean it out pretty well. I soaked and cleaned the rotors and removed the slides and polished them up separately. So, the next order of business was to get the body of the tuba looking a bit better.
Supplies: Tarn-X, Tarni-Shield, some cotton cloth strips, a towel, rubber gloves, a kitchen sponge, access to the water hose outside.
Before:
Yes, the lead pipe is spray-painted silver. It is copper underneath. I removed the paint best I could with what I had available.
During:
I put the Tarn-X in a spray bottle and generously covered the tuba with it, approximately one segment at a time (i.e., bell, then branches, then guts, etc.) I used an old cotton sheet that I cut into rags to wipe off the tarnish after the Tarn-X went to work. I attempted this with a kitchen sponge as well but found that it didn't really matter. (NOTE: do NOT use the green scrubby side of a kitchen sponge!) It took many applications of Tarn-X to eat into this heavy tarnish.
Eventually, I ran out of Tarn-X but had quite a bit of the tarnish removed, so I decided to go ahead and use the Tarni-Shield to get it polished up (since Tarn-X just removes tarnish and does not polish). There are some spots on the inside of the tuba that didn't get quite as nice as I would like; I will touch it up next week after I get a new bottle of Tarn-X in the mail.
After:
The Tarni-Shield did really well. I just applied it on a soft cotton rag and started polishing. Not perfect, but much better than it was!
