New Valve Oil to Test!

[davewerden]

This looks promising. The nice folks from Houghton Bland Low Brass provided some new synthetic oil and grease to test. I cleaned the horn today and applied the #1 oil. It "goes on" more like a thin petroleum oil and spreads easily on the surface. The action is at least as good as with Hetmann #1.

One goal of the mixture is to lessen the "gunk" build up. I'll let you know how that part goes!

I'll move on to the grease in a bit. The #3 oil might work for my 1895 tenor horn.

[davewerden]

Update: I tried some of the slide grease today, and it is easily the best I have used. The oil is working great, too, but this has not been a long-term test yet.

If you are interested, they are available from this store:

https://houghtonhorns.com/collection...idt-lubricants

They were exhibiting at the UCA event where I performed last weekend and are nice folks with a true brass mindset. I assume they also helped to fund the UCA event, which is why I hope you would buy the oil from them if it interests you.

[iMav]

Too many options for me to choose (having zero context on what to try/use).

[davewerden]

For Adams valves, use:

Valve Oil 1 Synthetic Light Piston 50ml with Dropper

For the slides, use:

Slide Gel 7 Synthetic 30ml with Dropper

Both are shown in the photo above. The #3 oil in the photo is for "vintage" valves that might leak, like my tenor horn from 1895:

[aroberts781]

Unrelated to the oils, but that is a really cool looking tenor horn Dave!

Back to the topic at hand, I recently noticed some gunky buildup in the tuning slides of my New Standard using Blue Juice on the valves and Hetman tuning slides grease. I don't recall having this much gunk with the same combo on my Schiller, so if I decide to do some experimenting with other lubricants I might give these a try.

[davewerden]

Unrelated to the oils, but that is a really cool looking tenor horn Dave!

Thanks! I bought it in high school from the Salvation Army Thrift Store for $5. It needed a water key cork and a patch for a cracked tube. I used it in college for a valve trombone on a couple dance gigs.

Back to the topic at hand, I recently noticed some gunky buildup in the tuning slides of my New Standard using Blue Juice on the valves and Hetman tuning slides grease. I don't recall having this much gunk with the same combo on my Schiller, so if I decide to do some experimenting with other lubricants I might give these a try.

If you decide to check out the oils, please report back!

[davewerden]

Update: it's still not been a long-term test, but I'm very impressed so far. In fact, I just ordered 3 bottles of the light oil and 1 of the grease.

[bbocaner]

Meinlschmidt is one of the top makers of rotary valves and is in the Munich suburbs. They used to recommend Hetman oils for use with their valves, and these oils seem to use the same grading nomenclature that Hetman does -- which makes me think it might possibly just be repackaged Hetman, but some of the marketing makes me think they changed suppliers and developed their own line.

[davewerden]

Meinlschmidt is one of the top makers of rotary valves and is in the Munich suburbs. They used to recommend Hetman oils for use with their valves, and these oils seem to use the same grading nomenclature that Hetman does -- which makes me think it might possibly just be repackaged Hetman, but some of the marketing makes me think they changed suppliers and developed their own line.

The marketing is annoyingly vague! But I suppose they don't want to give away too much info.

I can say that in my testing so far, both the #1 oil and the grease are superior to the comparable Hetman products. The valves and slides feel smoother, and the valves seem quicker.

The only thing that would discourage me from continuing to use this is if it causes some kind of deposits/etc. in the horn that Hetman did not. Time will tell.

[enhite]

I'm someone who has had difficulty with synthetic valve oils. My spit seems to cause the synthetic oils (Hetmann, Yamaha, etc.) to "gunk up." I would be interested if the Houghton Horns oil is any different for people like me.