An Exercise in Cymbal Cleaning

JustJames

Platinum Member
This is not for the faint hearted. You have been warned.

I have a little used secondary set of cymbals. They are Kashian cymbals, which I believe is or was a budget brand owned by UFiP. They are ok but not great and are the darkest coloured cymbals I have ever seen. I decided to clean the ride cymbal.

I tried lemon juice, tomato sauce, Bar Keeper's Friend and combinations of the above. Maybe it was the severe darkening of the cymbal, but all I could get was some small bright spots in the gloom. Trouble was, having started, I had to finish.

I also tried Simple Green and window cleaner, neither of which did much, and tried WD40 which at least smells pleasant.

If you are already uncomfortable with my cleaning regimen you should stop reading now. Cleaning products were not cutting the mustard, I needed something more brutal. My answer was wet/dry abrasive paper in 800 grit and plenty of water.

The cymbal is a bit cleaner but still very vintage looking.

I think that the crash and hats can stay just as they are.
 
I say do whatever works for you, and the heck with everyone else. I've always had good luck with Groove Juice.
 
Well, you gotta do what you gotta do I guess. If you don't care about preserving logos (like me), or preserving the vintage look (like me), then if a sledgehammer and a chisel is the answer......do it!

I've used CLR and fine steel wool. The logos disappeared quicker than a punter at the horse races, but my cymbals gleamed like new.
 
I've seen professional cymbal smiths put cymbals on their lathe and take sanding sponges to them. After a few passes, the cymbals look pretty good. You really aren't removing much, if any, bronze by doing this. Like people above said, if you don't care about the labels, go to town with some abrasives.
 
I say do whatever works for you, and the heck with everyone else. I've always had good luck with Groove Juice.

The same for me. Since I recently bought some used cymbals, it was Groove Juice to the rescue. Peace and goodwill.
 
I've recently decided not to clean my cymbals anymore. I always end up making them look worse. Shinier, of course, but there's always some blemish or dark spot or something that ends up bugging me.
 
This is not for the faint hearted. You have been warned.

I have a little used secondary set of cymbals. They are Kashian cymbals, which I believe is or was a budget brand owned by UFiP. They are ok but not great and are the darkest coloured cymbals I have ever seen. I decided to clean the ride cymbal.

I tried lemon juice, tomato sauce, Bar Keeper's Friend and combinations of the above. Maybe it was the severe darkening of the cymbal, but all I could get was some small bright spots in the gloom. Trouble was, having started, I had to finish.

I also tried Simple Green and window cleaner, neither of which did much, and tried WD40 which at least smells pleasant.

If you are already uncomfortable with my cleaning regimen you should stop reading now. Cleaning products were not cutting the mustard, I needed something more brutal. My answer was wet/dry abrasive paper in 800 grit and plenty of water.

The cymbal is a bit cleaner but still very vintage looking.

I think that the crash and hats can stay just as they are.

Can we see some photos, please?


T.
 
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