pipemakersforum.com

I was just roaming around online and found that there are some places here in China that sell bakelite rods. Naturally, I came back here to see what others have posted and said about it. Unfortunately I think I have more questions now than answers. Is Bakelite bad for your health? What is the difference between vintage bakelite and stuff that was made yesterday? Is it hard to work with? Also, the stuff I found online here is pretty damn cheap. Is a cheap price a red flag as to its quality or chemical used to make it?

If anybody is interested I can post the web address here. More importantly, if anybody knows the answers to some of my questions, I would be happy to hear from you!

Thanks,
Kiel

Id be interested to see some pictures. Working with Bakelite is not really any worse for you than the other stem materials we use but I belive some people are more sensitive than others.

I hope that your computers recognize Chinese characters. Because I have no idea what most of this stuff is I will just list it with its translation. In many of the stores, bakelite is listed along with a few other materials that they are selling in sheets and rods.

胶木棒=Bakelite rod
酚醛布棒=Phenolic cloth rod
环氧树脂棒, 环氧棒=Epoxy rod
耐高温棒= High temperature rod
绝缘棒=Insulated rod
玻璃纤维棒=Fiberglass rod

I got these translations off of google, so if some of the English names seem strange or are incorrect I blame it on google

I am sure that these online shops are selling to a people who are not making pipes.

Go to www.taobao.com then copy and paste the Chinese characters for bakelite in the search bar.

caskwith wrote:Id be interested to see some pictures. Working with Bakelite is not really any worse for you than the other stem materials we use but I belive some people are more sensitive than others.

Chris,
Hate to call you out, but Bakelite is bad stuff. The vintage stuff can have asbestos. Bakelite is a phenolic plastic, made from phenol-formaldehyde resin.
When I use Bakelite, I wear a respirator and have the dust collector going full bore. When filing, I do it over the dust collector. The stuff is toxic.

That is good information! I don't have a respirator and use a shop vac for dust collection. Even though the price here seems pretty good, but I will probably pass.

baweaverpipes wrote:

caskwith wrote:Id be interested to see some pictures. Working with Bakelite is not really any worse for you than the other stem materials we use but I belive some people are more sensitive than others.

Chris,
Hate to call you out, but Bakelite is bad stuff. The vintage stuff can have asbestos. Bakelite is a phenolic plastic, made from phenol-formaldehyde resin.
When I use Bakelite, I wear a respirator and have the dust collector going full bore. When filing, I do it over the dust collector. The stuff is toxic.

Call away, happy to be corrected! I wasn't aware it was so nasty. Come to think I might have had celluloid in my head. Realistically I guess none of the materials we are working with are particularly good for us but thanks for the warning about Bakelite, guess it's good I don't use it! lol.

baweaverpipes wrote: ...Bakelite is bad stuff. The vintage stuff can have asbestos. Bakelite is a phenolic plastic, made from phenol-formaldehyde resin.
When I use Bakelite, I wear a respirator and have the dust collector going full bore. When filing, I do it over the dust collector. The stuff is toxic.

Yup. It doesn't necessarily have it, but anything we call vintage today definitely could:

http://www.asbestos.com/products/general/plastics.php

With all of the truly superior options available for stems today, there's no reason to choose this stuff. Besides rolling the asbestos dice, the final product is weak and wears quickly. I've only used it a few times on museum-y oldies that the owner insisted upon, and found nothing at all to recommend it.

It sure makes a pretty shank cap or accent piece on Nate's Gear/Steampunk pipes, but I don't know if I would want to make an entire stem out of it. Given the right application is sure sings though.

I would listen to Mr. Weaver on this.

George (or anyone else with info) have you any experience with micarta? I suspect it is in the same boat with bakelite being a thermoset material with phenols involved.
There was a guy from Dallas sitting next to Bryan Rowley at the show that is using it for shank caps etc. Looked good. Apparently pretty popular stuff in the knife world.