It's not Bakelite as its way to modern. It is probably acrylic done up to look like amber. Amber was never truly that yellow hue in real life. Most amber feels like glass against the teeth. Anyway smoke and enjoy the damn thing!
Is this Stem Butterscotch?
- Thread starter Sharp_tungsten
- Start date
Yes it is. However, what's pictured in the original pipe in this thread is not Bakelite. Trust me, it's just cheap yellow plastic. Bakelite has come back into use, it fell out-of-favor for decades. In the 1960s and 1970s, pipemakers were not using Bakeluite, Turkish ones or otherwise. Everything was vulcanite and basic plastic, and in a few cases, acrylic like Plexiglas/Perspex.
Plexiglass and Perspex are just brand names of acrylic. Not much difference in the formula.
Yep. Just US vs. UK brand name. Acrylic was, I believe, fairly new for pipe stems in the 1970s, and didn't hit meerschaum until the 80s. Meerschaum workers stuck with yellow plastic, and the 80s brought in some tortoiseshell acrylic.
When Did Acrylic Stems Come Into Use? :: Pipe Talk
Does anyone have any information on when acrylic stems came into use in pipe production?
pipesmagazine.com
Had no idea acrylic might have come in that early. So maybe the yellow plastic stems are acrylic! The Turkish stems don't have the harder feel of Bakelite.