5/17/07: Valve Maintenance

Proper horn maintenance is an easy, but often neglected, means to prolonging the life of your horn and making sure it is working to its highest potential every time you take it out of the case. I’ve been seeing a lot of students’ horns recently that are in need of some cleaning and general maintenance and thought that this would be the perfect subject for my first blog.

Since this is a big topic, I’ll be splitting this up into several sections. This week’s subject is on valve maintenance. Everybody has been told to oil their valves and we know that oiling them keeps them lubricated and moving freely. Too often, though, we wait to oil them until they have started to slow down. Lubricating the valve is only part of the reason we should oil them. Equally important is the protection that a layer of oil provides for valves. All horn valves are made from raw, un-lacquered brass, which makes them susceptible to oxidation when exposed to the oxygen in the air and the moisture we blow through the horn. When a valve begins to oxidize, it becomes thicker with the addition of the green patina which causes increasing friction inside the valve casing. At this point, oiling a valve might help it move a little easier, but it won’t get rid of the oxidation. The damage has already been done.

The valves must be oiled regularly for preventative maintenance as well as for lubrication. And, while it’s hard to know when the layer of oil has evaporated off of the valves, we cannot hurt our instruments by oiling them more than is necessary. So, it would be wise to err on the side of oiling too often. As a general rule, I recommend oiling your valves everyday, even if you don’t play that day. The oil still evaporates regardless of whether you play or not.

So, how do we oil our valves?

Continued on the Next Page.