Clawhammer Question & Answer

At one time I used acrylic nails regularly but stopped when I noticed that the new formula the salon was using wasn't as hard as before and began "scratching" on the strings. I suspect the new formula was probably developed to prevent chipping by being more flexible.

I did a search for information and believe I found out what the change was...

The old acrylic formula I was using is something called PMMA. Another product called MMA was used in conjunction with it and was later listed by the FDA as "a poisonous and deleterious substance". PEMA is often used now but is softer than PMMA. A "copolymer" of both is used (without the MMA) and is probably the best choice available for clawhammer players as it's the hardest available formula that is safe to use.

Here's a summary of acrylic formulas that I pulled from the internet. It goes from hard to soft:

"To summarize, the order of hardness of polymers used in nail sculpture is: PMMA >co-polymers of PMMA/PEMA>PEMA>PIBMA>P-n-BMA. Of  these, only the co-polymers and PEMA  are useful, with the co-polymers being preferred and yielding the best results."