 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: Paul Aviles
Date: 2024-05-24 07:01
The silver that we are all familiar actually contains a modicum of nickel. According to a jeweler I ran into today, the company Stuller has created a silver that substitutes palladium. This version of silver is being called Continuum or Continuum Silver. This silver is supposed to be harder and less prone to tarnishing (and or oxidation).
Has anyone had ANY experience with Continuum? Is there any company that offers this for instrument keys? Does Anderson (the major plating company here in the US) offer this as a plating option?
Yes, it is more expensive than standard silver, however it is much less costly than gold.
Thanks in advance!
................Paul Aviles
Post Edited (2024-05-24 11:57)
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Author: Reese Oller
Date: 2024-05-24 08:41
Palladium is highly toxic, is it not?
Reese Oller
Clarinet student (performance major at Millikin University)
I can play bass clarinet, Eb clarinet, BBb contra, alto saxophone, bassoon at a decent level, and flute in a pinch.
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Author: Julian ibiza
Date: 2024-05-24 09:15
The ASTM B700 standard for silver plating in engineering appears to be between 99.9 to a minimum of 98 % purify.
Julian Griffiths
Tel. 34 696 798 853
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Author: Julian ibiza
Date: 2024-05-24 10:13
Which rather suggests that this Contiuum silver has already been around for standard engineering electroplating , but perhaps Stuller are marketing it for wider application, which is the bit that's interesting.
Julian Griffiths
Tel. 34 696 798 853
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Author: Paul Aviles
Date: 2024-05-24 22:04
I did get some input from Anderson, but they are steeped in the tradition of their 99% silver bath and do not seem interested in changing anything about their proprietary method.
I can understand that fads come and go. This alloy of Stuller has only been around about twelve years and may have issues that cannot be anticipated without more trials. At any rate I am still curious to have an alternative to gold for those of us that "eat" traditional silver with our body's chemistry (whether that be caused by salts or acids).
...............Paul Aviles
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Author: Julian ibiza
Date: 2024-05-24 23:20
Sorry Paul,
I misunderstood and thought it was about silver purity percentages in plating, I missed the key part about Continuum being an alloy. Good as it sounds, I can't find any references to electroplating with it however, although it certainly sounds ideal for that. I only have a very basic knowledge of electroplating, but I believe doing it with alloys can be problematic and in some cases impossible.
But it certainly would be interesting to get to the bottom of this question.
Julian Griffiths
Tel. 34 696 798 853
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Author: Chris P
Date: 2024-05-25 00:11
Miyazawa used to offer flutes with palladium copper alloy tubing, so it's a viable element to use along with silver and the other popular alloys used for woodwind instruments.
As far as its toxicity, I just Googled it and apparently "Palladium is a metal with low toxicity. It is poorly absorbed by human body when digested."
Are you sure you're not confusing palladium with cadmium as cadmium is far more toxic. I've seen cadmium plated flute headjoint cork assembly plates - the one that's threaded and holding/compressing the cork instead of the one that's facing the bore nearest the embouchure hole.
Former oboe finisher
Howarth of London
1998 - 2010
The opinions I express are my own.
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Author: Paul Aviles
Date: 2024-05-25 00:34
Thanks Julian for the possible complication of the electroplating process and alloys. That sits better with me than "That's just not the way we've done it for seventy-six years."
Hardness is an issue, however Continuum Silver is still not as hard as Gold. Anderson offers gold plating.......... so that's not the problem.
.................Paul Aviles
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Author: Reese Oller
Date: 2024-06-08 08:32
Maybe I was confusing it with Cadmium. Not sure now....
Reese Oller
Clarinet student (performance major at Millikin University)
I can play bass clarinet, Eb clarinet, BBb contra, alto saxophone, bassoon at a decent level, and flute in a pinch.
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