Edwards Slide and Tarnish

[JTeagarden]

I have an Edwards 350 with a TN 22 slide, and it bogs down incredibly fast...

It seems there is no end to the tarnish I can extract from the inside of the outer slide tubes, endless rounds of swabbing with a cleaning rod and Wright's brass polish, cloth black as night each time.

The slide was aligned by the Slide Doctor 4 years ago, and not used much since then, and nothing seems out of alignment: I have never pulled out so much tarnish from a slide as this, are Edwards slides kind of known for this, and/or are they particularly tight (not a lot of clearance between the stockings and the outer slide tubes?)

[bassbone1993]

I have not heard of this. Might be worth reaching out to Edwards about.

[JTeagarden]

Closer inspection (running hand along the outer slide with a very thin cloth) reveals a couple of very small dents in both outer slides, there's my cause of bad slide function, tarnish probably a red herring ...

[Posaunus]

Closer inspection (running hand along the outer slide with a very thin cloth) reveals a couple of very small dents in both outer slides, there's my cause of bad slide function, tarnish probably a red herring ...

Red herring or not, I don't understand why you should be getting so much black gunk from the inner surfaces of the outer slide.

[ghmerrill]

In my experience, depending on what you might have on your cleaning cloth, you can get black gunk on it because of how it reacts with the brass. It doesn't mean the black gunk was there in the first place, but only that your cleaning material/solution has turned to black gunk. For example, using Mothers Mag & Aluminum Polish to clean a brass outer slide will, in my experience, always turn your swab black. Maybe Wright's has a similar kind of chemistry?

[JTeagarden]

Could be, I'm using strips from old bed sheets, thrifty guy that I am

[tbonesullivan]

I would take it into a tech if you can, and get that sorted out.

Is that a slide that has Nickel Silver outer tubes? With some metals, using any kind of polish at all will result in black "gunk", as they have some type of abrasive in it, and then the small particles of metal taken off oxidize immediately.

I also have heard that now the Slide Dr. Recommends Goddard's polish and not Wright's.