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Have a vintage synthetic knife handle??- An easy test to detemine material and narrow the vintage

Bakelite was the first - patented in 1907- Catalin was another later competitor who joined with Bakelite in 1928- French Bakelite or Galalith was introduced in the 20's- There were other early celluloids that appeared shortly thereafter- True Bakelite is brown or black while most of the early more colorful handle material is Catalin-

Now how to test easily

1) Run running water under a tap until it gets hot

2) Hold the handle material under the hot water for 30 seconds or so

3) Immediately hold to nose and sniff

If it smell like formaldehyde it is Bakelite or Catalin

If it smells like burnt or spoiled milk it is Galalith (French Bakelite)

If it smells like camphor or Vicks vapo rub it is another early cellulloid

These manufacturers all had fairly specific time frames, so this simple test can help narrow the window of manufacture for your knife- Hope this is informative

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Permalink Reply by Steve Hanner on July 24, 2014 at 20:06

Thank you John this is very handy. I have heard that celluloid does smell like Vicks.

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Permalink Reply by Jan Carter on July 25, 2014 at 16:59

LOL, yes Hog that is exactly what is smells like when it begins to gas off

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Permalink Reply by Tobias Gibson on October 11, 2014 at 11:04

Thanks for the info John. I'm guessing this is not the case with the newer celluloids, including the "cellidor" handles on Swiss Army Knives. As for gassing out -- are knives less likely to gas out if they remain oderless after doing the water test or do you know?

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In MemoriamPermalink Reply by John McCain on October 11, 2014 at 14:56

Tobias,the answer is all true "celluloid" handles are basically chemically unstable even there are different chemical compositions to them-- The word "celluloid" has kinda become a generic term like "kleenex". The more modern synthetic handles made in the last 50 or 60 years are often erroneously called celluloid but are vastly more chemically stable-In short, if your knife is made much before 1950 it is probably some sort of true celluloid and can gas off whether you smell anything or not after doing the water test.One exception to this is the Case Classic line of knives Jim Parker put out-- Even though made in the early 1990's, they used the old style celluloid.There is some evidence that the lighter colored celluloid tends to gas more frequently than the darker colors.Here is a link to an article written in Knife World in 2000- It's a long article, but very informative about celluloid and gassing .http://www.oregonknifeclub.org/celluloid_02.html

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Permalink Reply by Richard van de Laarschot on October 12, 2014 at 13:45

Thanks that's very usefull

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Permalink Reply by Tobias Gibson on October 13, 2014 at 10:01

A lot fo good info in that article, John. I've heard a lot of today's Celluloid is actually Acrylic. Of course even acrylic is only expected to remain stable for around 30 years!