Originally Posted by
Kayin
I'm gonna tell you something-the report that was published is crap.
Now, I CAN plate stuff all by myself, so I am not speaking out my hinder parts here. But if you look at the science behind it-that CANNOT happen, unless there is already a flaw in the block plating. Do you need more proof? I would cite the extremely high incidence not only of other companies but of older EK plating faring like tanks for years with anything you can imagine in those loops.
I think I have some nickel plated stuff still here. I also have access to sulfuric acid. Guess what-IT WON"T ATTACK IT WITHOUT A CHARGE APPLIED. Science you can try for yourself! If there's a hole in the nickel though, it eats the copper. Just like in a loop. I may try it with the base of my block (which looks great compared to the top) just for s***s and giggles.
Now, here's the part I want everyone to make sure they grab hold of-that report documents a completely possible scenario. It simply leaves off the fact that copper and nickel have to be in contact in a loop with enough impurities to create a weak battery, and then it destroys itself. Do those conditions exist if you use PT-Nuke? No, because copper sulfate is not readily breaking down to free copper ions and sulfur. Its valence shells are full, so it doesn't want to make compounds, and that's part (and only part) of galvanic corrosion.
Silver is noble enough that it should not have any issues with either nickel or copper. In fact, in loops with only copper and silver (where the largest gap in nobility lies) there is no corrosion. Nickel is in between those, so it should in theory react even less. But, you can force it if the items are in contact in the loop-like if the plating has gaps.
"Backyard scientist" or no, I do have the requisite knowledge to determine what happened to my own parts, and draw inferences based on that and known scientific principles and apply them to what I see posted by others. Requisite experiential knowledge, I might add.
Nickel is hard-wearing stuff. I have a nickel-plated horn that survived a blowtorch hot enough to pull the zinc out of the brass underneath without incident. And even silver is hard enough to wear in contact with saliva (there's something you don't want around metals) for more than a century-like my 1875 Moses Slater cornet, which still has 60% of its silver intact.
Like I said earlier though, he's replacing the blocks that failed, it's your choice to continue to use his nickel or replace for copper, or to dump them and go to another vendor. I'll tell you what I know-the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth so help me empirically verifiable external sources-but I will not think for you.