I've been playing french horn in school for about five years, and I'm not exceptional by any means! But I love the instrument. Our school district bought a french horn a few years ago when we didn't have enough french horns for players. The almost new Holton has great tone. But unfortunately it fell into ignorant hands and has been neglected for two years. I just received the instrument and cleaned it up and got it back up to snuff, except for the valves. I can't get them to run smoothly!! They act all gummed up. I've put oil in the top and bottom of the valve, and I've dropped a couple drops in the tubes down onto the valves, but they're still gummed up! Do I need to use more oil?? Or what? Any suggestions?
Sounds like your oiling correctly but you need to get the dried oil out, that's the gum your feeling. One way is to have the school send it to the repair shop, its not your horn so don't spend any money on it. Another way is to flush them out with a thin valve oil. Where can you buy a quart of valve oil? Walmart and Kmart has it but not labeled as valve oil. Look for Lantern oil , the stuff used in oil lamps, it is very cheap and many of the valve oils are made of the same stuff. Take out all the crooks on the instrument and flood the valve with the lamp oil, this should flush out the gum. After you have dumped the lamp oil re-oil the way you have been. (Lamp oil is not dangerous, it burns if you hold a match to it but that is about it, you can also use charcoal lighter)
Here are 3 options I know of - 1) take it in and have it cleaned. This can cost anywhere upwards from $40. I paid $75 last time. 2) Clean it yourself. Take out all the slides, pour a few drops of dishwashing liquid soap into each valve (one at a time). Get it all the way through, like you would when using oil. Use warm water and rinse out all the soap. Let it dry. This is very tedious, but has worked for me the couple times I've done it. 3) Like someone else said, use a thinner valve oil to semi-rinse out the gumminess. This has also worked well for me. Keep the lead pipe clean!
The proper oil at the right locations should free up the valve. Sometimes the grease from the slide accumulates in your valve, but oil will loosen it up for a short while. Some sugetions are to take out all the slides and snake and flush them with water as best you can. You should do this to your lead pipe about twice a year as well. Reoil everything and regrease the slides with a quality product. If its still gummed up ,its likely you will need to have the valves removed and professionally cleaned.
