Help identifying electrical panel material.

[Fixall]

An electrician buddy of mine knows that I (try to) make knives and gave me some old electrical panel material. I don't expect anyone to necessarily be able to identify it (unless one of you is an electrician, lol), but if I could rule out what it's not, that would be helpful.

First the good stuff, lol. A big ol' block of brown canvas Micarta. This came out of a Westinghouse branded circuit panel with an inspection date from the 80's. It's 1" x 2.5" x 30".

And now the stuff I'm trying to figure out.

This came from that same circuit panel. It's really heavy and looks like chocolate. Seems like a phenolic to me. Idk.

More material from that panel. I'm fairly positive this is just going in the trash bin.

This came from a panel with a manufacturer date of 1996. My buddy thought it might be a paper phenolic, but I'm unsure.

I think this is more of the same material, just thinner.

Any ideas?

 

[52 Ford]

An electrician buddy of mine knows that I (try to) make knives and gave me some old electrical panel material. I don't expect anyone to necessarily be able to identify it (unless one of you is an electrician, lol), but if I could rule out what it's not, that would be helpful.

First the good stuff, lol. A big ol' block of brown canvas Micarta. This came out of a Westinghouse branded circuit panel with an inspection date from the 80's. It's 1" x 2.5" x 30".

And now the stuff I'm trying to figure out.

This came from that same circuit panel. It's really heavy and looks like chocolate. Seems like a phenolic to me. Idk.

More material from that panel. I'm fairly positive this is just going in the trash bin.

This came from a panel with a manufacturer date of 1996. My buddy thought it might be a paper phenolic, but I'm unsure.

I think this is more of the same material, just thinner.

Any ideas?

Bakelite!

The bigger pieces likely ARE linen reinforced phenolic resin...

The PCB could be a variety of different materials. Fiberglass and epoxy, linen and epoxy, linen and phenolic resin, etc.

Sent from my Champion Forge using Tapatalk

 

[Fixall]

Ahhh, Bakelite!! Didn't even cross my mind.

So Bakelite for the two rectangular pieces that are the same size.

And maybe linen phenolic for the two black pieces? I was kind of wondering about that. It does look like there are some layers to it.

Definitely beats the GPO-3 he brought over last time!

 

[fitzo]

Cool stuff!

 

[Edwardshandmadeknives]

It looks like the brown stuff you are wondering about might be some rag Micarta. If it is, I would highly recommend getting rid of it. You can mail it to me for disposal Seriously though, if it is rag, it’s a pretty rare material and pretty desirable. The black stuff looks like Bakelite.

 

[Edwardshandmadeknives]

Yeah, I just zoomed in on the pic of the brown stuff with the three circles on it. Sure looks like rag to me.

 

[Fixall]

Hmmm... I don't think it's rag phenolic. At least it doesn't look at all like any of the rag phenolics I have on hand (I suppose that doesn't mean all that much though).

I'll get properly suited up today and cut/grind a little to try to get a better look. If it's Bakelite (or even rag), I imagine it has asbestos in it so I'll treat it like G10. Not really a fan of it in the shop.

 

[Edwardshandmadeknives]

Hmmm... I don't think it's rag phenolic. At least it doesn't look at all like any of the rag phenolics I have on hand (I suppose that doesn't mean all that much though).

I'll get properly suited up today and cut/grind a little to try to get a better look. If it's Bakelite (or even rag), I imagine it has asbestos in it so I'll treat it like G10. Not really a fan of it in the shop.

That is some super nice rag under your thumb there in the picture! I’ve seen stuff that was real boring without much color variation, but man that’s wicked cool

 

[Fixall]

Huh... I think you're right. I think it's some sort of rag Bakelite. Weird. I just polished a bit and will get some pics up tomorrow.

 

[Sean Jones]

Interesting stuff.

 

[Fixall]

Sorry, I'm a bit late posting.

So the big ol' square, black piece that I thought was meh, ended up being my favorite out of the bunch, lol. It looks to be a paper phenolic? I don't think I've seen anything quite like it, but I'm pretty sure I'll be using this bad boy.

Not a very good pic, but I'm pretty sure the smaller black pieces are paper phenolic... Or maybe an asbestos paper. It sure takes a nice polish.

And the rag Bakelite looking stuff... I still can't quite get a bead on. It polishes up EXTREMELY well, but it seems to discolor or burn with even light pressure. It gets a harder to see the grain with a really high polish. These have been wetted.