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?
Posted by: Rosanna Post Reply
10/16/2016, 20:40:15

Please let us know if you find out anything more. I'd love to have one for testing...I'm sure there are types of plastic used for beads that I haven't handled yet.

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!



Modified by Rosanna at Sun, Oct 16, 2016, 20:58:24

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