I'm not sure if I posted that I switched from the Laskey to a Houser. Turns out that the Laskey still caused a reaction, though much slower than the old Giardinelli's I played on. Yesterday, I lost the leather from my duck foot. This came with the horn when I purchased it and so never really even thought of it. One day of playing without the leather pad left me with a rash, and both a numb and tingly feeling in the crook of my hand. Really pretty crazy.

I'm nickel sensitive too. First thing I had to do was be very careful about the mouthpiece. Most silver mouthpieces don't work for me, 24K gold and plastic are fine. Haven't done the stainless thing but there a lot would depend on which stainless.

Anyway, big thing I find is to maintain the lacquer between myself and the metal. Quick fix on your hand rest would be to cover it, either with leather, neoprene or some brush lacquer.

Sewed up a new leather pad today for the duck foot. I have some nice gold-plated rims, nothing. I find that even with the hypo-allergenic rims, I get a rash on the brass/silver plate cups. The stainless made a huge difference in my embouchure and range.

I've been a bit nervous about stainless because a lot of things marked stainless cause a outbreak on my skin.

Find quite a difference in silver, a couple of horn mouthpieces my lip just swells up. Great high range for a day, then can't play much of anything for three, but I have an alto horn and the silver mouthpiece there really doesn't cause me any problems.

Seems to be what did they mix together and no way to know in many cases.