So my usual trusted seller of pure nickel strips in the UK (Metal-mass on ebay.co.uk if you are in the UK and need some) was out of stock last week so I bought some Nickel from NKON, advertised as >99.7% pure Nickel.
It looked like pure nickel, felt like pure nickel and tasted like pure nickel ( I jest). As soon as I welded with it I knew something was up, lots of sparks and occasionally lumps of material flying off that continues to burn for up to 3 seconds as it fizzled around the workshop. Nickel does not behave like this, nickel will spark a little but this was showers of sparks.
I got the dremel out and ground some known good nickel and no sparks. Try it on the NKON and within a second showers of sparks. This is clearly plated steel.
I have emailed NKON and will let you know what they say.
Ok so he wants me to test it with salt water, this is a reliable test he says.
Bro I know this is plated - it’s so obviously different to pure nickel. I will do the salt water test but I bet it doesnt show anything and its stainless steel underneath or something
You’ll do it because this guy has to eat his words even begrudgingly, so annoying when a non-neutral stance is taken in handling issues.
Maybe they were duped somehow by a scurrilous supplier, maybe they should salt water test new rolls themselves before selling, when you have your evidence ram that down his comm-tube
Put 10 cm of the nickel on a decent scale and compare the weight with the calculated weight of a nickel strip of it’s volume.
8.91 g/cm³ density of nickel.
Steel would be 7.7 - 7.95 g/cm³
I know but 99.7% nickel will not spark under the grinder -steel does. I will test it tomorrow with salt water and let you know. I never had these problems with my usual supplier of nickel but I thought I would try you this time as I get my cells and insulation from you. Even if this is somehow pure nickel (it isnt) its behaving significantly differently for me to discard it and not use it. I bought 10 meters so this is disappointing
This is what he replied
We have had several customers who says your nickel behaves different than the nickel you had before or nickel we bought elsewhere
Thus far nobody showed me rusted nickel and I don’t think you will be the first to proof otherwise.
Have you ever heard of annealing? It changed properties of material without changing the compositions. It seems you assume same composition = same properties, which is false. Other trivial example, if you cut the nickel in small pieces you can’t wind it on a spool easily any more. Same composition but very different properties. third example, what if the material we have is perfect flat and the one you had was not flat (like fine sandpaper), or the other way around? Would it weld the same?
You are free to be not happy with it, that can happen and happened before, but your conclusion that it is nickel plated steel is offensive and very short sighted
Maybe I was too harsh in my message to him, let’s see what the test reveals
Regardless of being harsh or not (you payed for a product) I find this reply far from professional towards a customer who is genuinely concerned about using good quality materials.
The way he replies is in my opinion denigrating.
As a shopowner neutrality and trust is key in treating you clientele.
I hope it rusts now honestly haha.
I get my cells from nkon aswell but now i know not to trust their nickel.
maybe just something went wrong, yeah sure thats anoying but usually nkon delivers nice products and I never had any issues with either cells or nickel from them
I buy all my nickel from nkon.
That said, since they buy their nickel from some supplier too anything can happen.
Even the most reputable companies can screw up deliberately or not.
He should have been a little more careful with his reply.
This is what I think. It’s possible he got a bad batch, and he obviously didnt test it as he doesnt mention that in his reply. Maybe he is right and it is pure nickel, if it is I wont use it anyway as it’s dangerous. You should see how it came too, I havent even showed that yet
I jest). As soon as I welded with it I knew something was up, lots of sparks and occasionally lumps of material flying off that continues to burn for up to 3 seconds as it fizzled around the workshop. Nickel does not behave like this, nickel will spark a little but this was showers of sparks.
