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Forum Archive :
Equipment
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> Recently I came across people selling Backgammon games emphasizing the
> fact they contain "Bakelite" chips. What are they and why are they so
> special?
For anyone who cares about such things, bakelite has a superior aesthetic
feel than later forms of plastic (eg. Crisloid's crap product). Bakelite
was a company that developed a "thermosetting" plastic in the early years
of this century -- one that retained its shape under high temperatures.
As such it had plenty of industrial uses, but it also became popular as a
material for jewlery, (brooches, bracelets, much in demand) and various
other decorative items , such as playing pieces.
If you've ever held a handful of bakelite checkers, you should have
noticed a rich lustre, a heavy, "massy" heft to them, a sensuous "click"
as they jostle about. It's very distinctive. Modern Crisloid checkers
are lighterweight. ...just cheaper feeling.
Same goes for doubling cubes.
Bakelite is like "kleenex" -- a leading (originating, here) brand name
that became the standard name for the product. The later plastic,
"Catalin" is a species of bakelite, as I understand it. Many great radios
in the 40's/50's were made from Catalin. It's a little lighter, but
alomost sparkles.
As you can tell, I'm keen on bakelite. I use vintage bakelite pieces
(green/yellow) on my Crisloid board when I go down to Harvard Square
(rarely these days).
Albert
One last dig at Crisloid: to widen their profit margin, they shrank the
sixe of their checkers about 10 years ago, so they no longer fit snugly in
the game sets. They slosh around. Grrr.
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Equipment
- Bakelite checkers (Albert Steg, Nov 1998)
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- Board design (Chuck Bower, Feb 2004)
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- Board design (Adam Stocks, July 2002)
- Board design (Gregg Cattanach, Dec 2000)
- Board design (Michael Poche+, Dec 1998)
- Board design (Albert Steg, Jan 1998)
- Boards (Bert Van Kerckhove+, Aug 2002)
- Boards--Custom-made (N Merrigan, Mar 2003)
- Boards--Dal Negro (Erin+, Jan 2004)
- Boards--Features to look for (Matthew Mueller+, Dec 2000)
- Boards--Hardwood Creations (Ben Fairbank, May 1998)
- Boards--Tak Morioka (Gregg Cattanach, Feb 2002)
- Boards--Tak Morioka (Ed Zell, Jan 1999)
- Boards--Zavoral (Robert Zavoral, Oct 1999)
- Buying a tournament board (Chuck Bower, June 2011)
- Care of backgammon boards (Ken Bame+, Mar 2009)
- Checkers (Mike O.+, Feb 2003)
- Checkers (Chuck Bower, Nov 1997)
- Dice (Gregg Cattanach, July 2004)
- Dice cups (David Montgomery, Nov 1999)
- Dice cups (Leo Bueno, Feb 1998)
- How much to spend on a board? (Ian Shaw, Apr 2004)
- Leather boards (HGM+, Dec 1999)
- Luxury boards (Paul Vianna+, Feb 2010)
- Meyer Dice Tube issues (Stick+, July 2010)
- Meyer Dice Tube usage (Justin Nunez+, Feb 2011)
- Meyer Dice Tube--Why I hate it (Bob Glass+, Dec 2010)
- Moderately priced boards (William Womack+, Feb 2010)
- Precision dice (Patti Beadles+, Jan 2001)
- Precision dice (Larry Strommen, Feb 1998)
- Precision dice (Chuck Bower+, Feb 1998)
- Replacing cork on backgammon boards (JP White, Apr 2003)
- Suppliers--BG Shop (Michael Nelson, Jan 2002)
- Suppliers--Backgammon boards (CKT, July 2004)
- Suppliers--Backgammon boards (Ian Shaw+, June 2002)
- Suppliers--Where to buy dice (Andrew B.+, Jan 2008)
- Suppliers--Yenigun (yenigun, Sept 2005)
- What finish to use on a cork board? (JP White+, Apr 2003)
- What is "standard size"? (Daniel Murphy, Mar 2001)
- What is "tournament size"? (Rodrigo Andrade+, July 1999)
- Woodworking--Finishing a board (M Moore+, Jan 2008)
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