Please help me!! There is a myth going around at my school that makes me want to cry everytime i hear it and it can not be true. I hope. Well i thought if anyone would know it was some of you guys. So here goes...
As you all know your flute joints may get stuck together if they are not clean or something like that. This problem is easily solved by simply cleaning the joints. However i have heard that if you use your urine to clean the joint it will stay cleaner longer because of a particular enzime. Not only will it supposedly clean the joint but keep it cleaner longer.
I have never peed on my flute and never will i don't care if it is the best thing in the world for it. I know people who actually have and i want to cry. Please tell me this was all made up. I don't know how this got started but everyone in my school knows about and many neighboring schools as well. Again please help me sleep at night and say it is not true.
That is disgusting! No, you are right, please don't pee on your flute. There may be some type of acid in human urine, but rubbing alcohol will clean it just the same. EWWWW!!!!
The main chemical involved with removing most silver tarnish is Thiourea acid for dissolving the silver sulfide. This is probably where the idea came from.
You can find it in some form is all sorts of things...even hair conditioning shampoos.
(now people will start using hair conditioners to clean their flutes)
Urea is a widely used chemical, eg in fertiliser, in animal feed, a raw material for making plastics especially the type used for surfaces of kitchen benches, for manufacture of a waterproof glue, for de-icing roadways and runways, an additive in cigarettes to enhance flavour, a browning agent in factory-produced pretzels, an ingredient in some hair conditioners, in facial cleansers, in bath oils and lotions, in some cold compresses for first-aid use, a flame-proofing agent (in dry chemical fire extinguishers, an ingredient in many tooth whitening products, in creams and lotions to soften and rehydrate the skin (especially cracked skin on the bottom of one's feet), an ingredient in dish soap.
Yes, it is a major component in urine, but urine is normally completely sterile, unlike your hands, your flute, your mouth, your lips, and your fingers.
In some subsistence societies, cattle urine is collected and used to bathe human babies, because it is far safer than using the infested available water.
In case it is relevant, I have a piece of brass, part of which was exposed to urine some time ago, and part left to tarnish more naturally. The former is more slippery than the latter.
Some of us are rather sheltered from the realities of life!
The urea you mention is certainly the synthesized chemical (NH2)2CO and not the urea taken from anybody's urine or from animals' urine. It may be the same carbamide but still, in a way, it is not the same product. Or so we'd like it be be...
It's simply that the idea of !***!ing on one´s flute (not to mention another's guy/girl flute) is disgusting for most of us westerns... Though I'm sure that a few here have secretly felt the temptation, when a colleague or teacher has crossed some border... (I hope I am not giving bad ideas to anybody)
True is that countless people have survived when buried alive (after earthquakes, for example) by drinking their own urine, as some (now famous) survivors from a plane crash did by eating human flesh.
Most of us would probably do the same, if taken to those extremes. But it's still disgusting, IMHO.
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What a sensitive censor machine we have here! In case somebody cannot figure out what those !*** stand for, I can tell...
Ok.... laying your flute north at night, putting wax in the crown cork assembly, blowing on your pads, keeping orange peels in your case.....and now peeing on your flute joints.
Is there any other instrument that has this crap? Are flutists just generally dumber? Someone please tell me that cellists keep crushed eggshells in their instruments or trombonists bury their horns for winter hibernation.
A little dish soap (a couple of drops) in a cup of water and a small child's extra-soft toothbrush is all you need in normal cases. If you want to protect the metal, there are many available coatings that are non-toxic.
Novus makes a plastic/clearcoat polish for instance that you spray on and it keeps fingerprints and tarnish off of metal for months at a time. I use it for my car and other metal trim as well - though it's not good for aluminum and brass(doesn't hurt it but does darken it).
Extreme tarnish or gunk may require more aggressive methods, of course, up to having the thing ultrasonically cleaned. I really recommend this if your flute is older and going in for a complete overhaul. It'll shine like new.
Please don't use a toothbrush on your flute. It may look soft but it will still put mini scratches in the surface of it. Simple rubbing alcohol on a soft cloth will do the trick without damaging anything.
Tim, you had be laughing!! I tried playing my flute tonight at the church with it pointed west, but that didn't sound so great, but when I pointed it toward the south it played MUCH better! I blew on my pads and I was so amazed! I sounded just like Galway! And when I took the candle wax that was on the alter and poured it into my headjoint I think I sounded even more like Galway!!!
I then put my K style Yamaha headjoint on it and WOW!!! The I sounded just like Tracy Harrison! I forgot to bring my toothpaste and toothbrush to do the tenons on it though Maybe next time...
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Maybe next time...