Silver polish

[Meinl]

I'm very serous about keeping the silver of my euphonium nice. I an getting conflicting advice - don't polish very often (if true, what is very often), don't use that product . . . or that one. If you polish it removes sikver every time you do. Etc. I have a fairly new LeBlanc polishing cloth with a white and gray side - why two cloths in one? And why does it seem not to work well?

[bbocaner]

I wouldn't worry too much about removing silver. It's true, but you aren't removing very much at all. I would worry about polishing introducing small scratches from dirt on the polishing cloth or abrasive polish. I think using a product such as the hagerty spray or the blitz polish is a good idea for the occasional cleanings to restore shine and using a cloth lightly more often is good to keep it fingerprint-free and maintain.

I think it's also worthwhile to keep an anti-tarnish strip in the case with the instrument when you're not playing it.

the cloths with two sides usually have one side which is just a plain flannel cotton cloth and the other side is impregnated with some chemical or light abrasive agent to help remove tarnish. Sometimes it helps if you get this side a little wet (trombone spray bottle, for example) before using it. But for fingerprints that are really stuck on and/or real tarnish or dulling of the surface it's not going to do an awful lot.