Originally Posted by
ThePloughman
To elaborate.
I collect vintage Rogers 1960's, 70's, and early 80's, among other brands. Chrome does not like steel wool. Painters use steel wool to dull down lacquer between coats, as an alternative to fine sandpaper. Basically, using steel wool on your chromed metal parts is the equivalent of using sandpaper on them. Sure, they make steel wool in very fine grades, 000, 0000 superfine. However, the truth still remains, you are scratching that finish to make a shine. That shine might look real good from ten feet, or twenty feet away, but up close, and the pics wont lie....... I can tell when a vintage drum has been cleaned with steel wool. The difference between a bright shiney 350 dollar 1977 Rogers Dynasonic COB drum......... and 100.00 worth of parts might just be the fact the current owner decided to clean off 30 years of dusty grime with steel wool. Sure that drum is going to look clean, because it used to be dirty, but its not going to be clean with all those scratches on it. In fact....... its now ruined.
So just imagine some 1920s gold plated Ludwig covered in 70 years of dust gets magically dropped into your hands...... youve got a five thousand dollar drum. Or....... you have a ruined, formerly valuable vintage piece which becomes an unshining example of how not to clean any drum.
Steel wool should be your absolute last resort. Rusty chrome, something of no value, something that doesnt matter, rust on stand parts. There are plenty of places and times it might be the only thing left to use. But not on anything that matters or is meant to look good. With the vintage hot rod car market so widespread, its not like you cant find really good altermatives to steel wool in non abrasive cleaners and cremes that would not be harmful to a drum shell or parts.
The same applies to scotch brite pads.
So, for any who did not know, or might have been offended by the abrupt reply to start with, now, you know.
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