[Chu-Jerry]

This is my next (current) project. It's a 1927 198xxx satin gold plate Chu. This one had evidently been dropped way back when it was still fairly new resulting in a bent neck, slightly bent body tube, and a few posts popped off. It sat for generations, unrepaired, until coming to me.

Nice gold, nearly 100%. Just got it cleaned and most of the polish work done. Body straightened and neck fixed, posts soldered cleanly back on.

 

[Chu-Jerry]

How did you get the posts back on so cleanly?

p.s, it looks nice!

Thanks.
I don't mean this as a boast, but I'm a master of the art of soldering (in my not-so humble opinion ). It's taken many years and a lot of experience to get to that point. As far as the "how" of it, I explained my technique a few days ago in the repair forum: http://www.saxontheweb.net/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=63147

Here's a photo of a couple of the posts that were reattached:

 

[Chu-Jerry]

Simply gorgeous!

I really like the look and feel of this combination of satin blast and burnished gold finish. I wish modern horn makers would offer it.

 

[Chu-Jerry]

Purty

Is this a customer's sax or something you're gonna sell later?

It's one of mine that I picked up at a fairly low price on ebay many months ago. It was so black with tarnish that you couldn't tell it was gold plated, and the seller didn't know either. But I recognized the engraving pattern in the blurry picture and knew what it was.

I already have a nice gold Chu that I play and will keep, so this one will go for sale when it's completed.

 

[Chu-Jerry]

Here's a sample of what it looked like before cleaning and polish. It was actually worse when I got it. This is after I already washed the loose scunge from it and started in with the Hagerty's.

 

[Chu-Jerry]

Ya' know... That's the biggest problem I have with old Conns. There's so many nice ones and I can't play them all.

Good luck with this one

I always have a hard time parting with a newly finished horn. I wish I could keep them all. Blowing the first notes after a long restoration is like giving birth (ok, maybe only like watching giving birth, to you women out there )
Then after it's fully dialed-in and playing at top potential, it's like extasy and I want to play for hours and days. Giving them up for sale is like giving up one of my kids (ok, maybe only like giving up a new puppy - I wouldn't really give up one of my kids ).

 

[Chu-Jerry]

Beautiful horn.

What is your cleaning & polishing regime?

1) Disassemble
2) Wash with warm soapy water (dishsoap) and a toothbrush.
3) Clean 1st layer of tarnish with Hagerty's silver polish and a toothbrush.
4) Wash.
5) Work on crusty spots with whatever it takes: 0000 steel wool (carefully), fine brass wire brush in a dremel rotary tool.
6) Wash.
7) More Hagerty's.
8) Wash.
9) Mask all bright burnished areas, inside bell, tonehole edges, keyguards, and posts with tape.
10) Glass bead blast the satin areas lightly overall and more heavily in crevices and stubborn spots using fine glass bead media and low air pressure.
11) Wash.
12) More Hagerty's on toothbrush.
13) Wash.
14) Lightly polish with a soft cotton buffing wheel (must not be contaminated with any coarser abrasive) and extra-fine red jeweler's rouge.
15) Final wash with dishsoap and toothbrush remove to polish residue.

 

[Chu-Jerry]

I can now say first hand (I got an alto from Jerry), ...

Thanks for the kind words Jason - I'm blushing!

 

[Chu-Jerry]

Ok, got a pile of keys to work on. Everything goes into a bucket like this during disassembly.

 

[Chu-Jerry]

Thought some of you might like to see the steps involved in cleaning a gold plated key.
(you can click on any picture for a larger image)

Before


After cleaning with a toothbrush and Hagerty's silver polish


A nylon bristle 'cup-brush' is used in a dremel rotary tool with more of the Hagerty's to get into the tight crevices and smooth the luster.


The gold is hand burnished with a flat burnish tool to rub down and bring the shine up.


Final polishing with the ultra fine red jeweler's rouge.


Finished result. Note that the reflection shows some 'pattern' to the surface. This is in the original surface from when the Conn craftsmen originally hand-burnished the plating and it left lines or ripples in the surface. Most old Conn gold plated horns have this effect.

 

[Chu-Jerry]

Fantastic Pics Jer!
I have a question: How does one 'hand burnish'?
thanks.

Use a hand burnisher tool, of course!
It's a highly hardened and polished tool that is rubbed against the metal to be burnished. They come in different shapes but this one is a typical flat burnisher. It looks like double edged knife with a very thick curved face.

I rubbed bit on a piece of raw brass sheet stock to show the effect. It brings up the shine by 'mashing' the high spots down. This tool can be used in dentwork and in smoothing down gouges and scratches without causing loss of metal.

When using it on a soft gold surface, the surface and the tool must be absolutely clean to avoid causing scratches.

 

[Chu-Jerry]

wow, beautiful ....

chu-jerry, in your first post, in the third picture, what is that smallish key (hole as the keys haven't been placed on yet) at the bottom just above the Eb hole/key that i don't see on modern horns???

That is an alternate Eb key, sometimes called Eb tril key. I never use it for that purpose and many players and techs will disable the key and seal it closed rather than make the adjustments to make it work properly. But I find that sealing it closed detracts from the tone quality of the low F natural. The extra venting seems to give the F a fuller tone. So I always set it up to work as designed.

Bueschers from the same era also had this key.

 

[Chu-Jerry]

how do you sand blast?

With a sandblaster. Why?

 

[Chu-Jerry]

would this be suitable?
http://www.diy-compressors.com/catalog/product_info.php?cPath=29_65&products_id=156

i would quite like to try sandblasting,

No offense, but I really don't want to turn this into a sandblasting discussion. I'd rather talk about saxophones, and generally speaking, I don't sandblast saxes.

If you really meant "glass bead blasting" like I mentioned earlier in the thread, then something like this is what you will need:

http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/ctaf/displayitem.taf?Itemnumber=94274

 

[Chu-Jerry]

Done!

Muahahaa - It Lives!

Hey Jerry,
...With an overhaul/restoration like this, how long does it take from start to finish? ...

Well, looks like two weeks for this one. I'd say about 100 hours - but I'm slow.

Played great right off the bench too. This one surprised me a little; the full range just flows right out - even the altissimo was easy for me and I can't play altissimo.

Just a few last things to do:
I need to replate the neck since its plating got messed up during dent repairs. Case needs cleaning, then this one's good to go.

 

[Chu-Jerry]

Thanks everyone for the nice comments. I just put the horn down after playing a while. Either my playing is getting suddenly better, or I've got some great sounding horns now. (maybe both?)

I've never been able to pop an altissimo G out like I can with this horn. I tried 4 different mouthpieces and it's the same with any of them. Usually I have to slur up to it and it comes out weak.

There's got to be something wrong here - I'll keep checking .

 

[Chu-Jerry]

Hey Chu-Jerry, how can you tell between Silver and Gold when the horn looks like how it started?

You can tell by the engraving pattern. On the gold horns the engraving is more elaborate than the equivalent model silver plated horn. Also, with this model, the bell is burnished all the way around on the outside near the top, and the silver ones are only burnished on the front.

 

[Chu-Jerry]

I received some questions about the neck. As I had mentioned in the beginning, the neck had gotten bent. It was a pretty severe bend and dented too with the octave key posts popped off. I think the horn had probably been dropped and landed on the neck. While this is probably what saved the gold finish all these years (since it couldn't be played), it was a fairly challenging repair.

To do the repair, I had to completely disassemble the neck. That means everything was de-soldered and removed. The straightening process and re-soldering destroyed most of the original gold finish of course, so I replated it.

This first photo shows it before the re-plate. It is a mix of some remnants of the old gold and silver underplate, and bare brass.

Here is the result after plating. I used Caswell's 24K FastGold. The color came out just slightly darker (more gold - less yellow) than the original, but it is still a close match.

 

[Chu-Jerry]

OK, I see you are the master in Conn resurection.
I have an extremely neglected 16M shooting star tenor that needs some TLC pronto. What's your fee?
I know my sax may not be worth much, but it has tremendous sentimental value and I would looove to play it again.
Gracias....

Hi lkylady! I just now noticed your question, sorry to take so long to answer. I won't be able to fix any more customer horns for the forseeable future because I just got a full time job plus fall semester classes started and I have a full schedule. I probably won't even have enough time to work on any more of my own horns that need it, for quite a while.

The good news (for me) is that I finally found a job after being unemployed for 19 months. Now I can quit selling everything I own!

 

[Chu-Jerry]

Congrats on the new job! Are you teaching at an area college or university? Are you teaching music classes of any kind, or are you taking classes?...

Hi Sax Magic. No, it's not a teaching job; I meant that I'm taking a full class load. It's for a boring computer science degree, and I got a job as a software engineer. But it pays the bills.

By the way, the Conn alto has been sold and is in the hands of Fedex. Despite my best packing efforts, I always worry about my babies during shipment.