Tail piece questions

[PJM]

I have attached a picture of 4 tail pieces that I tried to clean this weekend. This is after they soaked in oxyclean for a couple days.

The one in the middle on the top and the one on the bottom are the same and appear to have chrome flaking off of them. The one on the left on top is stained really bad and the one on the right on the top appears to be in great shape.

I had thought that these were all stainless steel but the ones that are flaking are obviously not. Is there anyway to tell if the other ones are ss or not? Also, any advice on how I might clean up the one on the left? I tried scrubbing it but that did not work. Also, should I replace the ones that are flaking? Would off flavors leach into my beer due to the loss of the chrome?

Thanks.

 

[PJM]

Anyone?

 

[day_trippr]

Aaaand that's the reason I don't use plated brass.

I would toss the plated tail pieces, they're toast. If the stained one on the left is solid stainless you could probably buff off the deposits with a paste made from Bar Keepers Friend...

Cheers!

 

[PJM]

Thanks for the reply. Do you know a good way to test the other ones to see if they are ss? Now im kinda worried about my shanks too.

 

[outside92129]

if it's really shiny it's chrome, look for the dull matte look and/or machining marks on stainless tail pieces. My original set lost the plating in 1-2 years, which meant the i drank the plating (as did you). Of course i didn't notice any off-flavors, but i switched them out for stainless when i re-did my setup.

http://www.draughtquality.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/StainlessVsBrassTNB.pdf