Hey Mike, I've used the nickel allergy test as well with mixed results.
Sometimes is works sometimes it doesn't. In fact I would say it is not reliable most of the time unless you have a good control specimen.
I kept getting false positives and even negative results on known meteorites. In fact I took a Canyon Diablo iron that I had sliced and tested it for nickel. Hmmmm imagine my surprise when it showed NO results. I figure the test kit was old or out dated but whatever. The point is it didn't work on a 100% genuine meteorite, why would I trust it with something I'm not sure of?
There are nickel tests that work, but I have not tested many of them. Your best bet is to test your test kit. Testing against a known authentic meteorite is a good method. Then test against your "possible" meteorite. Your results will be more reliable because now you have a control specimen to compare results.
Hope this helps... Regards, Eric Mike Hankey wrote:
I've done some nickel tests on some of the slag/meteor wrongs we have found. It tests positive for nickel. Does this sound normal? So I guess the only way to confirm slag (if you can't do it visually) is to cut it open and if there are holes / bubbles then it is slag. Or if the slice doesn't look like a meteorite slice it is slag. For the record, I am personally looking for west like fusion crusted stones and this is what I am training people to look for. At the same time when I get reports about weird rocks I have to follow up and take a look. Not all slag looks the same, there are a lot of different types. I'm getting pretty good at identifying / ruling things out, but the nickel test threw me for a loop. ______________________________________________ http://www.meteoritecentral.com Meteorite-list mailing list Meteorite-list@meteoritecentral.com http://six.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/meteorite-list
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