Polishing...

[Pearldrummer13]

I'm polishing up some cymbals of mine, specificly the high hats and ride.
They were so dirty and this is the first time i got to use the Zildjian polish I bought. OMG does this polish work!!! I looks like I pulled the hats right off the show room rack!

But of course polishing takes a heck of alot of work. I'm just using a cloth to clean them. Do any of you have a good way you polish your cymbals?
Or more efficient way??

[Uncoordinated]

I tell you man if you ever get put on Marching Cymbals you get insanely good at getting those cymbals really shiny and clean.
:D

[pastor_bob]

I'll bet you would Uncoordinated! Welcome to Drum Chat!

[Yom]

I've just ordered some Zildjian Polish hopefully it's a good as you say

I was using Groove Juice and it made my cymbals really nice and shiny but I've heard too many stories about it wearing away logos and causing damage over time to justify continued use.

[backtodrum]

Welcome Uncoordinated to drum chat and keep those cymbals polished.

[Pearldrummer13]

the logos are deffinatly going to fade with time
i just polished over them because the cymbals were so dirty

i didn't really care if the logos were on or not
but yes the zildjian polish is awesome
you won't be disappointed with itws ability, if its used correctly lol

[Yom]

I tend to try and polish around my logos I quite like them :-P

[backtodrum]

I've said this before that a black sharpie works nice for touching up cymbal logos, Just color them back in if they are fading more than you would like!

[Yom]

A black sharpie?

[Pearldrummer13]

Hmmmmmm never thought of using a sharpie
My hats are just B8's, nothing special

My Z customs though, I would definitly be polishing around thoes logos :]

[backtodrum]

A black sharpie?

Try it, it works. I wouldn't lie to you and I am probably overly particular as to how things look and sound!

[Pearldrummer13]

Try it, it works. I wouldn't lie to you and I am probably overly particular as to how things look and sound!

thats always a good thing

[pastor_bob]

Man, I did my first polishing tonight. I got a used 20" Zildjian A Medium Ride, and a bottle of Zildjian Cymbal Cleaning Polish. One application just isn't going to do it! I still got another application and a lot of rubbing ahead of me, and I've more cymbals i want to do too! Oh well, tomorrow's my day off, and those cymbals really need a good cleaning! PD, I wonder if we could make it look fun enough to pull off a Tom Sawyer fence painting scam?

[Pearldrummer13]

haha, i'm not sure if we could trick anyone into doing that

[Ch33zz]

The black sharpie looks ok for like putting spots on the logo, but do not try and draw a new logo on, it dosnt work, someone tried to put "avedis" over the logo at our schools cymbals, how it says *small*avedis, then a large Zildjian under it

As for that, Yea, Youll get better with the cleaning soon enough, just remember to go in a circle

[backtodrum]

I only recommended it for touching up your logo's, I wouldn't try to replace a logo with it. I think that it would only look cheesy then! unless you were steady enough to make it look like the factory applied it. if I were to try that I would use a stripping brush and semi flat black paint to do that. I don't really care enough to go to that much trouble. I think I would just get rid of the logo all together with polish rather than try to replace it totally. I just try to keep my fairly new cymbals looking that way for as long as I can!

[Yom]

Apologies for the misunderstanding, this is quite possibly because I'm English I've never actually heard of a black sharpie :-P What is it?

Also, just polished a few of my A Customs with the Zildjian polish, very very effective. However it is damn hard work and I seem to get a few tiny black spots here and there that won't seem to shift. No way you'd see them unless you were close up to the cymbal but any ideas what that might be?

[pastor_bob]

Yom, a black Sharpie is basically a felt tipped pen that comes to a point (as opposed to the chisel tip on a lot of felt tipped markers).

I don't know what the tiny black spots are, as this is my first time polishing my cymbals. I'm sure that you'll find out what they are from someone.

[backtodrum]

Those black spots could be small pits and imperfections in the cymbal casting. You didn't notice them before intil you polished your cymbals and you rubbed the polish that turns black into those small pits and now they are noticeable. Take some zildjian cymbal cleaner in the spray bottle and apply that and maybe use a soft bristle tooth brush on the spots and see if it clears up.

[pastor_bob]

Cool tip BTD. Thanks. Now that you've solved that one, would you suggest a soft bristled brush for cleaning the black out of the lathed grooves in the cymbal?

BTW, this was my 5,000th post. I really have to get a life!!

[backtodrum]

PB, congratulations on the big 5000. I sometimes after polishing with a metal polish will go back and clean the cymbal with a spray cymbal cleaner to get the black out of the grooves, and yes should you decide you can use a soft tooth brush!

[Pearldrummer13]

I have the same thing going on too Yom
Even though I polished the crap out of my cymbals
they still have areas that contain black (in the tonal grooves)

I'll try taking a toothbrush to it and seeing how it does

[pastor_bob]

PB, congratulations on the big 5000. I sometimes after polishing with a metal polish will go back and clean the cymbal with a spray cymbal cleaner to get the black out of the grooves, and yes should you decide you can use a soft tooth brush!

BTD, what spray cymbal cleaner do you use to get the black out of the lathing grooves. The cleaner I used was Zildjian cymbal cleaner, and it was a liquid that I applied to a cloth. What is the difference in the cleaners?

[backtodrum]

BTD, what spray cymbal cleaner do you use to get the black out of the lathing grooves. The cleaner I used was Zildjian cymbal cleaner, and it was a liquid that I applied to a cloth. What is the difference in the cleaners?

PB either one from zildjian or Sabian, or groove juice for that matter. They are all fundamentally the same. I think the Groove juice is a little harsher though. There is another Brand called "kick brass" cymbal cleaner that works well too. all of those should clean the black out of the lathed grooves. At least it worked on my late 50 A ride that I polished the same way you did and cleaned the lathed grooves with Sabian cymbal cleaner.

[cdaug]

it seems i've heard lemon juice is a good cymbal cleaner. anyone heard this before or was it another one those things i dreamed?