Replicating Bakelite Colour

[Jamie]

How about trying a dark hardwood as a filler, plus a brown die in the resin.

That's a good idea. I have some scraps of old mahogany somewhere and a belt sander. I can see me taking a trip to the art shop for some powder paints.

Jamie.

[Hedd_Jones]

I repaired a black plastic car badge, didnt know what to use as a die, and google didnt help much. I used 5 min araldite (clear), with a dab of normal oil based black paint. Didn't take a lot, went as black as coal. Worked perfectly.

[Jamie]

Thank you, Hedd.

My current thinking is to try and dye some fine sawdust to the right colour and then mix that into a clear resin. I shall be using some for another project shortly, so can experiment with any leftovers, using silicon sweet moulds for the shape. I might still need some colour in the resin, but I hope that the wood dust will give a semblance of the original look of Bakelite, as you suggest.

Regards,

Jamie.

[Bruce Nicholls]

Try MDF powder. It goes surprisingly dark when mixed with resin.

[Duncan Grimmond]

Just don't breathe in while powdering your MDF! Highly toxic...

[Jamie]

Try MDF powder. It goes surprisingly dark when mixed with resin.

I shall try that. I have made a couple of pieces using a silicon mould for making sugar paste cake decorations. I mixed a fairly dark sawdust into a resin mix. The result was very encouraging, although it was a too dark for my liking, tending towards black too much. It did not help that I got the ratios wrong and the resin has set like a piece of warm toffee.

Regards,

Jamie.

[Renaud]

Hmmm! Did you taste it Jamie?

[Jamie]

Hmmm! Did you taste it Jamie?

Tempting though it may have been, I resisted the urge.
. Jamie