What is happening to my silver plating?

[BigBadandBass]

Hey all quick question, some of my mouthpieces in my collection have started to accumulate this rose gold colored wear or tarnish on them. It's mainly my older bach, Conn, yamaha and helleburg mouthpieces that have it, with none of my Josef Klier or Marcinkiewicz sharing the same issue, despite some of them being the same age.

I should say that my sweat is semi-acidic and wears away Trombone lacquer, but I haven't seen/touched these mouthpieces in months and they now just suddenly have this. They were also stored in a dry, moderate temperature of my parents house so no humidity or anything

Pictures

[BigBadandBass]

More photos

[Burgerbob]

Normal tarnish, to my eye. Should come off with a light polish.

[harrisonreed]

Yeah, silver tarnish has nothing to do with humidity, really. Maybe it does affect it, I don't know. It comes from sulphur atoms binding to the silver.

I witnessed instantaneous tarnish (at least it looked to me) at a ceremony where they fired a bunch of cannons. Bright polished trumpets, followed by sulphur smelling thick smoke, then the trumpets were all messed up looking.

[tbonesullivan]

Classic tarnish. Some silver polishes have a "tarnish shield" in them, which is usually some type of silicone. It may be possible that some mouthpiece makers now use this to prevent tarnish.

Bach and Yamaha used to have mouthpieces in plastic bags with a little black strip of paper, which was actually an anti-tarnish thing.

[BGuttman]

Very thin layers of silver oxide or silver sulfide will look gold or brown colored. Thicker layers look black.

Oxygen in the presence of acid and sulfur compounds can react with the silver to create tarnish. We chemists call it Ag2O or Ag2S but the actual formula is often more complex.

[Elow]

That’s interesting. I had the same thing happen to a mouthpiece that i left in my shops ultrasonic cleaning room for a week. I left it tuesday and came back monday and it was straight black and another was that orange color with my finger prints on it. I’m really not sure what caused it, or why they were different colors. It came off with some wrights silver polish

[Posaunus]

I have found that (at least some) leather mouthpiece pouches will cause silver-plated mouthpieces to rapidly tarnish. Now only used for gold-plated pieces.

[tbonesullivan]

That’s interesting. I had the same thing happen to a mouthpiece that i left in my shops ultrasonic cleaning room for a week. I left it tuesday and came back monday and it was straight black and another was that orange color with my finger prints on it. I’m really not sure what caused it, or why they were different colors. It came off with some wrights silver polish

One you may have touched, and the other you didn't. The orange color is just beginning tarnish.

Ultrasonic cleaners strip off ANY kind of oil and also literally shake any protective coating or oxide off the plating. This is the same as "flash rusting" that will happen after people etch steel before plating. It needs to be moved onto the next step ASAP or it oxidizes.

So, next time a good idea would be to take them out, dry them off, and then use some light silicone based polish, or put them in tiny baggies to keep the air away from them.

[tbonesullivan]

I have found that (at least some) leather mouthpiece pouches will cause silver-plated mouthpieces to rapidly tarnish. Now only used for gold-plated pieces.

The tanning agents used to turn hides into leather are nasty, whether they are vegetable based or chemical based. They readily react with just about anything. You'll often see a green waxy layer of "verdigris" building up around the metal snaps on leather items after a few years.

[Elow]

That’s interesting. I had the same thing happen to a mouthpiece that i left in my shops ultrasonic cleaning room for a week. I left it tuesday and came back monday and it was straight black and another was that orange color with my finger prints on it. I’m really not sure what caused it, or why they were different colors. It came off with some wrights silver polish

One you may have touched, and the other you didn't. The orange color is just beginning tarnish.

Ultrasonic cleaners strip off ANY kind of oil and also literally shake any protective coating or oxide off the plating. This is the same as "flash rusting" that will happen after people etch steel before plating. It needs to be moved onto the next step ASAP or it oxidizes.

So, next time a good idea would be to take them out, dry them off, and then use some light silicone based polish, or put them in tiny baggies to keep the air away from them.

That sounds about right, i normally wear gloves on hand where i get cuts so it’s very likely that one hand had a glove and one didn’t. It also makes sense that it doesn’t happen to others, because after i clean them i vacuum seal them. But i don’t understand why this wouldn’t happen to silver plated instruments. I polish after but i let the instruments dry for a day and they don’t get tarnished.