I re-worked some of my reel seats with new wood but salvaged the old nickel silver components.

I removed the old seat piece by piece by heating the nickel silver with a candle and whacking the old wood inserts off with a pocket knife. It worked, everything came off as it should.

The nickel silver polished out nicely to like new when I got the new seat installed, but there is some candle soot, I guess, down in the bottom of the threads of the the nickel silver that the locking ring spins on.

I have tried everything I have to get down in those threads to make them look good, but they stay black in the base. I was using a toothbrush, nothing more abrasive.

Any ideas?

Bill