Replicating Bakelite Colour

[Jamie]

Has anyone tried to replicate the colour of Bakelite successfully? I am thinking about trying to make some knobs in resin. If anyone has been successful with the colour, I would be interested to hear how they did it.

Regards,

Jamie.

[Duncan Grimmond]

I guess you mean depth of colour? Bakelite was made in many colours (including white) and the difficulty is getting apparent depth. Pigment pastes are available for polyester resins but once you have mixed a colour you like I’d suggest adding a hard filler powder close to that colour. This will both improve the depth and give a harder finish.

[Chris KC]

Never tried it myself Jamie. Reading accounts by other people, one route is to dye or use filler material (e.g. carbon black, or even powdered bakelite perhaps?); another is to machine from solid, starting with materials such as ebonite or tufnol. Or to machine from existing (scrap) bakelite artefacts (at which point there is usually at least one hysterical interjection about asbestosis, which usually culiminates in "wear a dust mask and you'll be fine").

[Jamie]

Thank you, both, for your suggestions.

I had not considered the use of a filler powder to give depth. I shall have a look at carbon black or powdered charcoal and see whether I can mix it with some powder paint to get a reasonable black-brown colour with a sense of depth to it. I plan to try using a silicon mould to copy an existing piece, rather than machining it. Crushed Bakelite as a filler makes sense, but I would need to find a source of it as I have none.

If I have any success, I shall update this post.

Regards,

Jamie.

[Colin Morgan]

Just in case there is any doubt about how not to do it - brown paint - of whatever shade - doesn't work.  Nor does adding an additional layer of varnish to try for some depth.  My repro door catch covers are done this way to try to improve the modern plastic look.  But I have a broken bit of very old bakelite cover here and the current finish is a poor substitute.

[Peter Naulls]

Jamie,

Your resin supplier might do pigments like this: Pigment & Painting | Mouldlife I've not tried it but that would be the ideal solution.

[Andy Bennett]

There are lots of Plasticraft (for those who remember the 70s 'toy' before glue sniffing was a thing) style kits with different pigments, on Amazon.

Andy

[Nick Lettington]

As bakelite can contain a percentage of asbestos, it might be a little bit silly to grind it to a powder...

[Jamie]

Thank you for the link to the resin and pigment supplier, Peter.

I remember those Plasticraft kits, Andy. I still have a couple if pieces of jewellery that my mum made with it, somewhere or other.

Jamie.

[Hedd_Jones]

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