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german silver/nickel silver allergy?

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coppercone2:
Does anyone have a really strong allergic  reaction to nickel silver?

I was organizing my copper and stainless foils last night, and I stumbled upon a piece of nickel silver, or german silver, that is a useful solderable material that covers low frequencies, unlike copper. This was a old unfinished partially finished shield can that I stopped working on a decade ago. Anyway, I had to bend it a little and use a rolling pin on it to flatten it out for storage. Since then I moved onto just doing stainless shields, which I torch braze, rather then nickel silver (its expensive compared to the free stainless sheet rolls I found a while back... I am not keen on buying more nickel silver, but it is convenient since you can easily solder it).

And today I have a rash on top of my finger, it looks like little bumps and its fairly itchy on top of the length of the finger. I put some ointment on it.

I semi regularly handle both the copper and stainless foils without problem, but the nickel silver was untouched for a long time. It consists of zinc, copper and nickel. I suspect it because when I was sorting my materials nickel silver stood out as the odd ball material of the bunch. I think I rubbed my fingers on it when I was flattening out a bend with my knuckles before I got the rolling pin to sheet it.

It just seems bizarre because i regularly use stainless steel and copper stuff without problems. Could it be a zinc metal allergy or some problem relating to the alloy? It feels a little bit like a bad itchy shave, but obviously I did not shave my fingers.

pcprogrammer:
Probably something only an allergist can provide a deffinitive answer to by doing tests on you.

Not sure if a blood test will show the cause of skin allergies.

If it lasts a while and really bothers you my advise would be to see your general practitioner and ask for either a referral to an allergist or a blood test if possible.

Ian.M:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nickel_allergy

TimFox:
With stainless steel, the chromium (required) component forms a protective chromium oxide layer that probably shields you from the (optional) nickel content.
I believe there is no such protective layer in "nickel silver" (non-silver-containing) alloys, if you have a nickel contact dermatitis.
Another reference:  https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/nickel-allergy/symptoms-causes/syc-20351529

tooki:

--- Quote from: coppercone2 on September 09, 2022, 01:31:07 pm ---Does anyone have a really strong allergic  reaction to nickel silver?

--- End quote ---
Nickel allergies are the most common metal contact allergy. My mom has it, with the consequence that she cannot wear most costume jewelry, nor most watches, regardless of price. (She’s had a titanium wristwatch for decades, since even most gold watches have nickel-bearing stainless steel backs and screws).

Since she’s getting up in age and has some balance issues, I want her to get an Apple Watch for the fall detection and James Bond watch phone capabilities, but we’re going to have to be very careful about which version and which band, due to the allergy.

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