 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: Alphie
Date: 2010-11-22 22:15
A friend of mine, a brilliant clarinet player has develloped this and suffers badly when playing. Has anyone here had this problem and found a solution? Apparently silver or gold plating does not help for her, it's leaking anyway.
Post Edited (2010-11-22 22:18)
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Author: sonicbang
Date: 2010-11-22 22:33
Have you friend tried rhodium? Its expensive, but maybe it works. He should make a test on it.
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Author: Bob Bernardo
Date: 2010-11-23 05:03
Maybe it's actually "Stuff," on the actual reed and not related to the ligiture.
All reeds are not naturally grown.
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Author: Bob Bernardo
Date: 2010-11-23 05:10
Are the fingers the problem of the mouth?
Designer of - Vintage 1940 Cicero Mouthpieces and the La Vecchia mouthpieces
Yamaha Artist 2015
Post Edited (2010-11-23 05:16)
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Author: Sarah Elbaz
Date: 2010-11-23 05:53
One of my students had a nickel allery and after some more tests they found that he had Atopic Dermatitis. Nickel allergy can be a sign.
Sarah
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Author: Alphie
Date: 2010-11-24 20:23
She got the allergy confirmed by a doctor today. She's a full time professional clarinet player and her whole carreer might be at risk. Does anybody know if it's possible to get a set of keys made from another base than nickel? Has somebody on this board gone through this problem? It just can't be the first time in history! Any advice is highly appreciated!
Her fingers and mouth (from touching the lips) are itching and stings.
sonicbang, do you mean plating the keys using rhodium? I know they use that on some flutes.
Alphie
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Author: clarinetcase
Date: 2010-11-24 20:44
This info from the jewelry industry may help, especially if the nickel will eventually bleed through, surgical steel and gold can usually be safely worn by people with nickel allergies.
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Author: ohsuzan
Date: 2010-11-24 22:27
Alphie,
I have sent you a couple of emails to your private address. If you do not get them, please let me know.
Susan
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Author: Ken Shaw ★2017
Date: 2010-11-24 22:53
Alphie -
Does your friend use a metal ligature? Since most of them are nickel plated, your friend could try a fabric model, though their tightening screws are probably nickel plated.
My father was a dermatologist. He told me most people are slightly allergic to nickel, and that once the allergy develops, it only gets worse.
I recently got an all brass (or maybe it's gold plated) Kaspar ligature, which I haven't used much. They were available again a while back. http://test.woodwind.org/clarinet/BBoard/read.html?f=1&i=304660&t=303811 And remember that string costs nothing and works beautifully.
If your friend gets gold/silver/rhodium plating done, remember that it has to go everywhere, including the posts and the barrel and bell rings. Others have had this done anc continued to play. Al Gallodoro had to have his clarinet and bass clarinet keys and his entire alto sax gold plated.
Good luck to her.
Ken Shaw
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Author: Alphie
Date: 2010-11-24 23:07
Susan, many thanks for your e-mails. I'm bad checking my hotmail account. I'll study them carefully Thanks again!
Alphie
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Author: Bob Bernardo
Date: 2010-11-25 00:53
I've heard of companies putting on powder coatings over metal. The process is sort of like painting but the powder coat is placed on metal using a magnetic current charge, so the power coating should last for years.
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Author: ohsuzan
Date: 2010-11-25 03:31
Bob,
Is what you are describing the same as "anodizing"? (From what I have read, it sounds like it.)
I have a severe nickel allergy, but I can use anodized metal. I don't know if anyone is doing that to instrument keys, but it sounds to me like it could be done.
Susan
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Author: SteveG_CT
Date: 2010-11-25 08:57
Susan,
Powdercoating is more akin to plastic coating than anodizing. The process involves blowing a cloud of statically charged particles at a metal part that is connected to a grounding wire. Since the metal part is grounded the particles stick to it. Once the part is coated with powder it is heated in an oven to a few hundred degrees at which point the powder melt into a thermoset plastic that uniformly covers the surface. Great coating for large surfaces but I don't think it would work well for clarinet keys since they have to fit together with tight tolerances as it can be difficult to precisely control the coating thickness of powdercoat.
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Author: sonicbang
Date: 2010-11-25 18:09
Yes, I mean rhodium plating. I have seen it once, its very bright and it doesn't have reaction with perspiration. Your friend should be tested against rhodium allegry. It is very very rare, so it might be the solution.
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Author: Alphie
Date: 2010-11-26 18:32
Thanks for the postings! I'll study them all carefully and pass on the information. You're all great!!
Alphie
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Author: tictactux ★2017
Date: 2010-11-26 23:03
A shoestring ligature will solve the nickel-near-mouth problem.
This is something I always wonder about - nearly all clarinets in Europe (even student models) are silver plated while the majority of the American instruments come nickel-plated as standard. I wonder because nickel allergy isn't all that rare (ask a jeweller), and the price difference for silver vs nickel plating isn't all that big. ![[huh]](http://test.woodwind.org/clarinet/BBoard/smileys/smilie11.gif)
--
Ben
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Author: ohsuzan
Date: 2010-11-27 01:58
Another imponderable, Ben.
Surgical stainless steel might be an even better option, but I have never heard of a clarinet or an oboe with stainless steel keys.
Is there a reason why the keywork could not be made of surgical stainless steel?
Susan
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Author: BobD
Date: 2010-11-27 10:08
As a metallurgist I am not fond of the term surgical stainless steel since it is meaningless. Nevertheless, the reason stainless steels are not used is that they are more difficult to work with....including machining. Stainless Steels represent a family of alloys that keeps increasing over time and a number of those alloys are used for medical purposes.
Bob Draznik
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Author: skygardener
Date: 2010-11-27 15:24
Many of the older clarinets (pre WWII) were made with different key metal than today and the keys were unplated.
It might be an option to see if some of these keys on these clarinets do not cause a problem for your friend.
Also, has your friend tried coating the keys in clear nail polish?
There are some ligs that do not have nickel. Ishimori, Vandoren fabric, Bois, and my ligatures (disclaimer- it's my product) do not have nickel.
Post Edited (2010-11-27 15:32)
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