Thanks, Robert B: Now I know what sort of fingerpicks to ask for whenever my fingernails fracture.

Let us know the results, please, Fred. I have to put gunk on my skin anyway for eczema, and worry that it would play hob with guitar strings: one of them has a petrolium-based, erm, base. For the record, my current strings are bronze-wound, and seem to not have suffered .... yet.