@stumac Okay, I’m back. Your question about cornet storage was illuminating. I store my cornet on a standard K&M stand with the bell down. However, when I look at the wear pattern/oil saturation, it’s valve 1 that needs its felts changed out most frequently; always valve 1, sometimes valve 2, rarely valve 3.

I think liquids flow downhill at my house, so barring some sort of siphoning effect or capillary/wicking action, my felts are most likely getting greasy while I’m playing and not while the cornet is in storage. (I’m not playing it upside down, but stop giving me bad ideas. Sometimes I get bored and curious. I might give it a try.)

On Thursday I did a full clean and swapped in new clean felts. Inspection showed that valve 1&2 felts and corks were soaked, but not valve 3. I had already been doing something similar to your suggested oiling schedule, but with 2 drops of oil instead of 1 drop.

I sometimes have odd issues. Maybe I’m just a greasy felt person. Any other thoughts?

Thanks.

@stumac I only have cornets* and I have greasy felts with bottom and top sprung instruments.

My first instrument was a 1938 Cavalier 90A, which is bottom sprung. I started having greasy felts that I just swapped out for new ones as needed. Then, going in a much different direction, I got a 1969/1970 Getzen Capri 580S, which is top sprung.

I find the 90A’s felts don’t get greasy anymore, but only because I’m almost entirely playing on the Getzen. I have a couple of other cornets, which I only play occasionally, that don’t tend to get greasy felts (or at least they don’t get greasy fast.) There’s the solution: no playing = no greasy felts. But that doesn’t sound like any fun.

I’m mostly playing the Getzen Capri 580S. You can tell because its felts are greasy.

*Hopefully that’s okay on this site.

@ConsultLeo55 Thanks for the reply. I’m removing the valve from the casing and oiling the part of the valve where the port holes are. I’m definitely below the felts, not above. Given that I already have greasy felts, I make sure to not get any valve oil anywhere near the felts. In addition, I’m not oiling through the holes in the bottom valve caps, through the lead pipe, or anywhere else. I’m just removing the valve from the casing and applying a few drops of valve oil to the part of valve with the port holes. That’s all.

I’m having a terrible time with the felts on my valve stems becoming saturated with valve oil. Does anyone else have this issue? Or have you encountered it before? It’s not just moisture, it’s valve oil. So much so that, if I forget my valve oil, I can just wring out the oil from the felts. It happens on multiple instruments, so I’m pretty sure it’s me.

I’ve just been swapping out the valve stem felts for new felts as they become saturated with oil; the valves tend to hang on the felt once the felt is too saturated. I tried switching to a cork plus felt setup, but greasy felts continue. I’m thinking synthetic felts are the next way to go. Any suggestions about this?

I’m pretty sure I’m not over oiling the valves. Also, any extra oil should come out the holes in the bottom valve caps and go on my shirt. I know how that works. Maybe.

I asked my instructor about it, but he looked at me like I was nuts. Never heard of it. Have any of you heard of it or had similar issues?

Thanks.