Thanks to our Minister of Defense, the kryptonite is well secured and in secret. 
Bakelite
- Thread starter Jef
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Some folks are sure to argue with me when I point out their briar pipes are made with a wooden tumor on the roots of fifty or more year older heath shrubs that grow on rocky hillsides in only one spot on this earth only because those taste the best.
But around here someplace I have a counterfeit briar molded plastic pipe. It’s not bad, but my Lees are safe from being replaced by artificial briar made from some kind of plastic.
There is no replacement for old, aged, cured, and hand worked Mediterranean briar and never will be so long as men smoke anything in a pipe. It tastes best.
But all briar pipes have some kind of plastic stem. The most common is vulcanized hard rubber, which is plastic, and second is lucite or some other grade of the plastic used on canopies used on P-51 Mustangs, Kaywoodie tried an all briar pipe and the bits didn’t last.
If you compare a Dunhill, a four hole stinger Kaywoodie, and a 7 pointed star Lee all three side by side, and you want to counterfeit one, you’ll counterfeit a Dunhill every time for two reasons:
Of course the first reason is men go as silly over a white spot on a pipe stem as they do pretty women. They’ll pay more money for a White Spot pipe than anything else you could fake up to sell them.
The second reason is you’d need a factory to fake up old Kaywoodies and Lees, and for a Dunhill your garage will do.
This old pipe is actually a display pipe. A collector put a string inside the screw stem and it’s impossible to remove it without risking a rare natural 7 pointed star era Three Star Lee.
Lee made that pipe from a natural piece of oil cured briar, three intricately machined aluminum parts hidden inside, and three dabs of jeweler’s gold hand hammered inside three stampings in the hard rubber stem.
I’m not saying you can’t fake one, I’m saying you would play hell trying to fake one.
But around here someplace I have a counterfeit briar molded plastic pipe. It’s not bad, but my Lees are safe from being replaced by artificial briar made from some kind of plastic.
There is no replacement for old, aged, cured, and hand worked Mediterranean briar and never will be so long as men smoke anything in a pipe. It tastes best.
But all briar pipes have some kind of plastic stem. The most common is vulcanized hard rubber, which is plastic, and second is lucite or some other grade of the plastic used on canopies used on P-51 Mustangs, Kaywoodie tried an all briar pipe and the bits didn’t last.
If you compare a Dunhill, a four hole stinger Kaywoodie, and a 7 pointed star Lee all three side by side, and you want to counterfeit one, you’ll counterfeit a Dunhill every time for two reasons:
Of course the first reason is men go as silly over a white spot on a pipe stem as they do pretty women. They’ll pay more money for a White Spot pipe than anything else you could fake up to sell them.
The second reason is you’d need a factory to fake up old Kaywoodies and Lees, and for a Dunhill your garage will do.
This old pipe is actually a display pipe. A collector put a string inside the screw stem and it’s impossible to remove it without risking a rare natural 7 pointed star era Three Star Lee.
Lee made that pipe from a natural piece of oil cured briar, three intricately machined aluminum parts hidden inside, and three dabs of jeweler’s gold hand hammered inside three stampings in the hard rubber stem.I’m not saying you can’t fake one, I’m saying you would play hell trying to fake one.
From my hobby of restoring old rotary dial telephones I have researched the following.
Bakelite was made by from 1907-27. Bakelite used filler of cloth, paper, cotton and even sometimes asbestos. This meant the plastic was heavy, very strong, opaque and came in only dark colors. When Bakelite’s patent ran out in 1927, the process was picked up by the American Catalin Company which called their version of the plastic catalin. The American Catalin Company used the same phenol formaldehyde chemicals, but made the plastic in is a different way. In particular no fillers were used. This meant that, unlike the dark and dreary Bakelite, catalin was often translucenct and made in a wide variety of bright colors and interesting designs, including a marble of different colors. Catalin was made from 1928 to about World War II.
Bakelite was made by from 1907-27. Bakelite used filler of cloth, paper, cotton and even sometimes asbestos. This meant the plastic was heavy, very strong, opaque and came in only dark colors. When Bakelite’s patent ran out in 1927, the process was picked up by the American Catalin Company which called their version of the plastic catalin. The American Catalin Company used the same phenol formaldehyde chemicals, but made the plastic in is a different way. In particular no fillers were used. This meant that, unlike the dark and dreary Bakelite, catalin was often translucenct and made in a wide variety of bright colors and interesting designs, including a marble of different colors. Catalin was made from 1928 to about World War II.
I’m about the least “do gooder” of any person I know, because I prefer people to the environment that people live in.
But because modern plastics are so cheap and such a boon to mankind they’ve created the real problem of plastic pollution.
The metals and fibers and woods plastic replaced will rot or rust away. Modern plastics last much, much longer.
en.m.wikipedia.org
But we can’t reverse the clock.
Plastics will only get better, and the better they are the longer they last.
But because modern plastics are so cheap and such a boon to mankind they’ve created the real problem of plastic pollution.
The metals and fibers and woods plastic replaced will rot or rust away. Modern plastics last much, much longer.
Plastic pollution - Wikipedia
But we can’t reverse the clock.
Plastics will only get better, and the better they are the longer they last.
