| Original Message: Another way to tell Bakelite from Polystyrene "Fakelite" |
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Just got another fine example of a bead that's been made to strongly resemble an old "cherry amber" Bakelite bead. It turned out to be a nice polystyrene bead, and the color and internal swirls are impressive in that they mimic those of old Bakelite (phenolic) trade beads. I have a quick & dirty method of confirming which plastic has been used. If I take a diamond grit bead reamer and ream the hole with a couple of strokes, then immediately sniff the reamer, the odor will be very characteristic of either polystyrene or phenolic resin. The color of the sawdust is also a clue - the polystyrene is dyed and the dust will be a pale red color. The underlying color of any phenolic bead is amber yellow, so the dust will show tinges of yellow. In these pictures you can see the results of the reamer test. First picture is an old Bakelite bead and the second is the new polystyrene bead. Just as an FYI - the new polystyrene bead was sold as "copal amber" which the seller (African) said was based on tree sap. All rights reserved by Bead Collector Network and its users |
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