Re: [Harp-L] Igor Flach and the 1847 Silver




On Mar 10, 2008, at 7:05 PM, Rick Dempster wrote:


'Nickel' is a 'base' (is that the right word?) metal - yes? I mean, not
an alloy.

Nickel is an elemental heavy metal. I don't remember it's number on the valence chart.


Is chrome an alloy of nickel and something else?

Chrome is chromium. It is also a real bona-fide element


and does
stainless steel contain nickel?

Yes, stainless is an alloy NOT an element. It is an amalgum or alloy of several metals.


Somehow I felt that nickel, chrome and
stainless steel were all related.

No, they aren't, BUT Chromium is generally electroplated over nickel which is electroplated over a base of copper. The reasoning is fairly basic. It all has to do with the number of electrons in the outer orbit of an element. Copper is a good base because it can stick onto steel with it's 2 outer orbit atoms bonding or 'knitting' into the 6 outer atoms of the steel. Then copper is maleable ( soft ) enough and porous enough to take a flash plating of nickel. The nickel is then buffed and polished to a high sheen and the chromium is used as a 'sealer'. The nickel is actually the shimmering shine and reflexion and the chromium is the 'glazing' coat giving a very hard shell surface which is extremely slippy and long wearing (if done right).


That's why I never condoned silver plating for mouthpieces on chromos. It just isn't necessary. My God, chromium is used to coat (better) gun barrels. Not much out there can beat it's slippyness.

Stainless can also be buffed to a high lustre but is not as hard as chromium and since it contains a LOT of nickel, it has approx the same wearability.

Base metal/pot-metal/white-metal are all amalgums of mostly zinc and some other metals.

German silver is a misnomer that has been around hundreds of years. Some crafty merchant came up with it to lend esteem to HIS wares. The word silver connotes something of value. Used mostly on gun parts, flatware, table acoutrements, personal hygiene items and anything where a 'trimmy' appearance was desired (i,e, hair brush), was made with this stuff.

I only added that little sentence to Frank's post to make people aware that German silver....isn't. I certainly wasn't correcting anyone as there was nothing to correct. His post was correct AS stated and read. I have also seen these types of adds. I already spoke with Frank.

I suppose I could look this up
somewhere but I might leave it to Smo-joe & Winslow to battle it out.

There really isn't anything to battle. Now most would say that regarding this subject "Who GIVES a.....". In actuality, some people (not me) are allergic to nickel, brass (because of the zinc), base metals, lead, mercury, tin, molybdenum, uranium, and a few dozen other metals. Most people are NOT allergic to stainless, silver, copper, gold.


I think Igor Flach was allergic to brass (probably because of the zinc). Maybe he wouldn't have been with bronze (it is copper & tin). Hey, I don't know.

Bottom line: with the exception of the cheap U.S. automotive bumpers of the past, it's real hard....real real hard to beat chrome. No one seems to be allergic to it.

smo-joe

RD


Winslow Yerxa <winslowyerxa@xxxxxxxxx> 11/03/2008 6:07 >>>
Actually, "German Silver" aka nickel silver, is a nickel-copper alloy,
sometimes including other metals such as zinc:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nickel_silver

It's used for guitar frets and woodwind keys, but may have toxicity
problems.

Hohner got rid of nickel plating on their coverplates due, I was told,
to German law, as some people are allergic to nickel. Perhaps this alloy
doesn't have that problem.


Winslow

Joe and Cass Leone <leone@xxxxxxxx> wrote:
On Mar 10, 2008, at 12:50 PM, Frank Evers wrote:

Hi

Life goes strange ways sometimes. Late Igor Flach was Seydels beta
tester for the 1847 stainless steel reeds harp.
However he was still unhappy with todays harmonicas, because he
didn't
want no brass at all in his mouth. Because of this he was looking
forward to Seydels upcoming "1847 Silver" model.

Now, only two days after his death i see on the Seydel homepage,
that
this Silver model finally is about to be delivered within this
month - with solid polymer comb and plated made of German Silver.

German silver is actually nickel smo-joe


Right the kind of harmonica he was looking forward to play for long.


Strage ways...

--
Gruß,Frank

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