A quick experiment with bakelite backgammon chips

tryppyr

tryppyr

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Feb 5, 2010
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Today I did a quick experiment, as a sort of extension to my damascus take down project. I decided to combine some of the bakelite backgammon chips and a few pieces of black G10 space material to create an alternative handle for the knife. The image below shows the results, and a pair of the same group of chips used to create the handle block.

DSCN7292.JPG


As you can see, the rich colors usually associated with bakelite are skin deep, and are cause by oxidation of the surface. Any yellow pieces are inevitably white underneath, as you can see on both the stripes on the green pieces as well as the full color of the yellow pieces.

I like the result of the experiment well enough to finish out the handle.

If you want to play with bakelite, the backgammon chips are fairly easy to locate and come in a variety of colors. Just go into it knowing the colors are different beneath the surface than they are on the surface.

Incidentally, if you're wondering how I got them stacked like this... I drilled a hole in the center of each piece, then stacked them on one of the cheap chopsticks you get at Chinese takeout places. Once it was dry, I drilled out the chopstick.

- Greg
 
This happens with early M16 grips, stocks and sometimes hand guards. Its called "mottling" and sometimes after sanding you can coax some out with a little heat. Not much heat though..

 
Greg, next time use a steel rod, coat with petroleum jelly it wont stick to the epoxy and no need for redrilling the whole thing.
 
The M16 grips are mottled... but that's not the same thing that happens to bakelite. Bakelite oxidizes pretty evenly, unless exposed to sunlight more on one side than the other. Anyway, I have no desire to try to reclaim the oxidized color.

Drilling out the chopstick was certainly not a problem. ;)
 
Greg Thanks for the info I love Bakelite. I have been looking for some like Karl A. has he got some of the best I have ever seen, check it out if you have not already. His is butterscotch all the way threw... really cool stuff... anyways good job man...
 
Just a note that the term "Bakelite" is sort of like Xerox and Kleenex....everybody uses the term freely for any object similar. Today, almost all Bakelite game products ( and other products) are made in China. Many are not phenolic, but other types of thermoplastics. True Bakelite and related products should not be surface coated.

Also, while generically called Bakelite, the marbled look material is a cousin called Catalin. The color and pattern go all the way through, BTW. Almost all iridescent or swirly looking backgammon chips and similar gaming pieces are Catalin.

Final trivia post - It was named after the father of plastics ( who invented it) Dr. Baekeland. He was trying to create a new varnish.
It is a good thing for the world his name wasn't Fucherhardt.
 
The reason I avoided using the Catalin trade name is that so few people are aware of it. My wife and I have been collecting Bakelite and Catalin objects for over a decade now, and we find that only a small fraction of dealers and collectors even know about Catalin, and those that do don't really understand what it is.

As Stacy indicated, there are a LOT of fakelite (a term coined to indicate fake Bakelite) products coming from overseas. However, be careful of the assumption that the superficial aging of a white piece to "butterscotch" is a coating. Any piece that is "butterscotch" color throughout is almost certainly fakelite.

- Greg
 
HAHAHA!!! Look awesome Greg!!! Excited to see this one come together, going to look great polished up!!!
 
I did a bit of shaping and sanding, just to get a sense of what the end product will look like. Obviously there's room for change and improvement.

DSCN7295.JPG
 
Are there any issues with corrosive outgassing like with celluloid? I'm not too familiar with Bakelite, or its properties, but I do like the looks of that!


-Xander
 
fast14riot said:
Are there any issues with corrosive outgassing like with celluloid? I'm not too familiar with Bakelite, or its properties, but I do like the looks of that!


-Xander
Click to expand...

Probably so. :)

As I recall, two of the ingredients in Bakelite are carbolic acid and formaldehyde.
 
Ingredients don't make for end products.......

Salt has deadly chlorine and highly reactive metallic sodium as its ingredients.....I eat salt.

Formaldehyde reacts with many things and forms polymer chains and resins. Urea/formaldehyde is one that is common. Different acids and organic chemicals make different resins and plastics. Phenol and formaldehyde make Bakelite. If this thermosetting plastic is used to laminate cloth or paper, you get Micarta. In the process of manufacture the resin is cured to become stable. It doesn't exactly reverse and release the component products. Excessive heat can degrade the polymer and cause some out-gassing.

The commonly stated warnings about "Deadly Formaldehyde Gas" coming off these products is rather overblown. Bakelite and Micarta are pretty safe products, and when particulate protection ( good respirator) is worn, not much of an issue. They smell bad, and are irritants, but not deadly. A p100 filter is enough, an organic vapor filter will help with the smell. Good ventilation and dust extraction is also of prime importance.

For those with no life and lots of spare time, here is an e-book that covers the subject of phenolics and other polymers in great depth.
http://www.niir.org/books/book/phen...isbn-9788190568500/zb,,12f,a,0,0,a/index.html
 
I though phrases like ,......."thermal cracking of the dihydroxydibenzyl ethers........ " would excite you :)
 
Last night during the dog walk my wife had an idea for the pommel. She said I ought to make it out of a black Bakelite knob. I don't have one, and don't think it would be easy to locate one, so I've opted to make one out of black G10. I went looking for a block of black G10 and the only supplier that has it is inaccessible to me, so I decided to make one from about a dozen slices of the black G10 spacer material glued together. Should work. I roughed up the surfaces with some 120 grit sandpaper before gluing them up.

DSCN7305.JPG
 
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