I get rashes from a lot of stuff. I'll stop myself from going into detail about that.

Lately, I've been getting more rashes in places that don't make sense-like the side of my right hand (this didn't make sense because I'm a lefty).

I did the research and I might have an allergy to nickel.

So then I started to panic because I thought of my horn.
I do not own my own horn, I have a school horn. Last year I had a yellow brass horn, this year I have a horn with a silver plating of some sort.
I had a flashback to my days of trumpet and the rental cornet I once had. It was a shiny, shiny silver and it was nickel plated.

Even though my horn is old and beat up and at least half the plating has chipped off, it's obviously silver and was once shiny.

So this never-ending narrative ends with the question:
Is nickel common for horns to be plated in?

It is possible, yes. Do you use a mouthpiece with a metal rim? If you do, do you get a bad ring around your lips after you play?

I know several people who are allergic to nickel, so I really don't doubt you when you say you're allergic to the stuff. As far as the whole horn thing goes...

Nickel-silver is a quite common alloy used in musical instruments. It sounds and looks pretty. But that doesn't limit the selection of instruments without it. My advice for getting a horn is that you talk to someone knowledgable about the horn before you pick it up just to make sure. It shouldn't be that hard to tell if a horn's got nickel in it, but you want to be sure before you make yourself miserable.

99 percent of horns are made of brass or Nickel. Typically nickel is not plated onto the horn but is what the horn is made out of. This is good for you. Becuase if the horn is nickle you can have it lacquered and this will put a barrier between you and the metal.

Hope this helps.

What are the other 1% of horns made out of?

I bought a new NS horn almost 3 years ago. It made my right hand itch like crazy every time I played the horn for the first several months. After I thoroughly washed it out and started heavily oiling it, the itching stopped.

I own two horns now. I oil them with the blue Ultra Pure Lamp Oil I buy at Walmat. (It works GREAT on the valves & it's dirt cheap.) To oil my horn, I remove the auxilliary slide & pour in about 3 or 4 tablespoons of oil thru a funnel into the horn. I replace the slide then I twirl the horn round & round every which way but loose, flicking the valves all the while. I eventually end up pouring out the excess oil out the bell, the water keys, the lead pipe, etc. That's actually what I want, the whole inside of my horn coated. (Philip Farkas used to recommend adding oil to the lead pipe. Sometimes I actually pour it into the bell.)

It's a VERY messy procedure, so be prepared if you try this at home. It will also melt all your slide grease, so you'll have to regrease them soon after.

The oil provides a barrier between the horn and the air. Oxygen in the air is what makes metals corrode. I believe it's the corrosion of the metal coming out the bell that made my right hand itch when I played that new horn. That horn had been sitting dry in the store for a couple years w/o any oil. It was full of corrosion which was moving out the bell onto my right hand. When I washed it out & oiled it, it reduced the corrosion & provided protect to reduce further corrosion.

Valerie

Frederick,

The other 1% would be materials like Ambronze, which is a very dense copper type brass (so it probably counts as brass), and aluminum. These are the two other metals I know of and have seen. I have heard there might be a fibreglass model out there somewhere but I have not seen it or seen pictures of it. I suppose there may be a couple of others out there too.

It sounds like it definitely is a nickel silver horn. Something you can do is to wear a thin leather glove on your right hand while you are playing (that way it isn't too thick and won't effect the sound). I had issues when I used to use a Nickel Silver Conn 8D. I now use a Conn 8DRS, meaning the lead-piping and bell are Rose Brass and the tuning slides are all nickel silver. At least with the bell being rosebrass it made a big difference. If it is a school instrument you could also show your teacher your reaction to the horn so they may switch you back to a brass horn.