This is a Holton 479 double french horn that was finished in early 2017. It has a raw brass finish that has been polished to a bright shine.
What is raw brass?
A raw brass finish is when a horn is left in a pure state, without any kind of plastic coating applied. A raw brass horn can still be polished to a mirror finish, but left alone it will eventually acquire a satin “patina”. This patina will vary depending on the player who is creating it, since everyone has a slightly different chemical makeup to their skin and perspiration. A raw brass finish is very popular among professional orchestras in Europe, and many professional players in the United States play on raw brass horns as well.
The reason that raw brass is preferred over a lacquer finish is usually to do with how it sounds (although some people just like the look of a raw brass patina). When lacquer is applied to a horn the horn is coated in a thin layer of a plastic polymer. This plastic coating deadens the sound slightly, partly because of the plastic finish itself, and partly because of the increased thickness of the horn once coated. The thicker the finish is applied, the greater the deadening effects of the plastic.
A raw brass finish is when a horn is left in a pure state, without any kind of plastic coating applied. A raw brass horn can still be polished to a mirror finish, but left alone it will eventually acquire a satin “patina”. This patina will vary depending on the player who is creating it, since everyone has a slightly different chemical makeup to their skin and perspiration. A raw brass finish is very popular among professional orchestras in Europe, and many professional players in the United States play on raw brass horns as well.
The reason that raw brass is preferred over a lacquer finish is usually to do with how it sounds (although some people just like the look of a raw brass patina). When lacquer is applied to a horn the horn is coated in a thin layer of a plastic polymer. This plastic coating deadens the sound slightly, partly because of the plastic finish itself, and partly because of the increased thickness of the horn once coated. The thicker the finish is applied, the greater the deadening effects of the plastic.
This is the same horn as above in August of 2018, after it had been played for 18 months. It came back to our shop for its first cleaning since it was purchased. It was not polished at all during that time, but it was occasionally wiped down with a soft cloth.
If you decide to have your horn in raw brass, then you have a choice. You can either elect to carry a polishing cloth and wipe your horn down daily, in which case the finish will remain quite bright and shiny for a long time without additional polishing. The second option is to polish the horn about once a month, which will restore the shine and is not too time consuming. The third and most preferred option is to leave the horn alone and allow the patina to develop naturally. Once the horn has acquired a patina then further tarnishing will be halted and the horn will not corrode beyond that point. There is a small portion of the population who naturally have very acidic hands; those people need to wipe their horn down daily regardless of the finish, and in the case of lacquer or silver the safest course is to wax their horn on a weekly basis. If you would like to see what a natural patina looks like on a horn, then there are many professional horn players that you can search for in Google images or on Youtube. Some of these are Wynton Marsalis, Radek Baborak, Dylan Skye Hart (whose horn is raw white brass, also known as nickel silver), and Andrew Bain.
This is the same horn again, after it was cleaned and wiped down with an untreated cloth. The horn was not polished, but it still looks as good as new. This is partly because nickel silver is highly resistant to corrosion, and in most cases a raw brass nickel silver instrument will require less care than a silver plated horn. A yellow brass horn would have acquired more of a satin finish after a year and a half without being polished.
If you clean or wipe down your horn on a regular basis then a raw brass finish will not discolor your hands or clothes. For the vast majority of people, there are no health problems or side effects to playing on a raw brass horn; however, there can be issues with playing on a raw brass mouthpiece. Some players over the years have decided to play on an unfinished mouthpiece, without any protective silver or gold plating. This is not recommended, as the constant moisture of a player’s breath and contact with the player’s lips will almost certainly result in the player ingesting some of the metal as it corrodes, and this can have side effects. If you have concerns about raw brass, then the best course would be to have your horn finished or refinished in silver plate or powder coat, or if possible gold.