No idea about a plastic that smells spicy | |||||
Re: Lindabd and Rosanna, I'd say it seems at touch not as dry as old casein -- paeonia | Post Reply | Edit | Forum | Where am I? |
If at all possible, get some material or beads made from known plastics (use the recycling codes) to use as reference material.
A summary of odors - some only apparent when hot needled or flame tested:
Phenolic resin - medicinal odor of phenol
Amber - pine
Celluloid (cellulose nitrate or cellulose acetate made with camphor)- camphor
Galalith - wet dog or burned milk
Acrylic (Lucite) - no odor in hot water or reaming; fruity (over-ripe banana?) with hot needle
Polystyrene - smells like styrene, sometimes very strongly if newly made
Nylons (polyamides) - burned horn or hair
Horn - burned hair
Polyester - smells like polystyrene, but fainter
Polyethylene - burning candle wax or parafin
Epoxy - hard to describe, acrid odor that is distinctive once you've smelled it. I've seen the odor described as "sweet" but I disagree with that. However there are thousands of different epoxy formulations so I may not have encountered a sweet one. FYI I worked in an epoxy - based industry for 26 years.
These are the ones I'm personally familiar with, and I don't have a comprehensive knowledge of all the plastics that have been used to make beads (yet). I believe Carole Morris has studied plastic beads for quite a while so maybe she'll chime in!