I have always had a fascination with Bakelite; before I knew what it was I had realised there was different quality in plastics. Bakelite has a certain warmth or patina to it, a wonderful weight and a certain clunky sound.
There are certain ways to identify Bakelite, I had tried the hot water and smell test....but that left me more puzzled then before. So I bought tubes of Simichrome Polish off eBay. (with shipping included, it cost me $14 a tube). I was very hesitant about testing, I was worried that everything would test negative. Regardless, I bit the bullet and tested each item. To my delight, 5 out of the 7 items tested positive. The Q-Tip turned yellow (to various degrees) when rubbed on the items.
I find it rather humours that Bakelite, a man made plastic.....is perhaps worth more then many precious metals. J'adore Bakelite.
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| Tested Positive |
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| Q-Tips after being used on the Bakelite or other Plastics |
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| Tested Negative |
There are certain ways to identify Bakelite, I had tried the hot water and smell test....but that left me more puzzled then before. So I bought tubes of Simichrome Polish off eBay. (with shipping included, it cost me $14 a tube). I was very hesitant about testing, I was worried that everything would test negative. Regardless, I bit the bullet and tested each item. To my delight, 5 out of the 7 items tested positive. The Q-Tip turned yellow (to various degrees) when rubbed on the items. 
Great tip and the pictures are helpful. I've been thinking about testing some items.
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