Ebonite

[Dan/Panther]

I'm just curious if everyone knows the difference between Bakelite, and Ebonite ?
I hear most refer to early phone items being made from Bakelite, yet research tells me many items were made from Ebonite, which is a very hard rubber compound, most know for use in early and even modern Bowling balls.
I'm just wondering if many items people think are bakelite are really Ebonite. When I hang up my 5302, with and F-1 handset distinct sound that is not like hard bakelite would make, and it polishes up rather nicely like my bowling ball used to years ago when I bowled. Bakelite takes much more effort to get a gloss that this F-1 handset is exhibiting.
Is everyone certain Ebonite was not used later in phones. Early receivers were Ebonite.
D/P

[benhutcherson]

My nose tells me with 99.9% certainty that F-1 and G-1 handsets(and caps) are Bakelite.

[bingster]

All E and F handests, and early G handsets are solid bakelite.  Some late candlestick receivers are bakelite, but the earlier ones are hard rubber, as you said, which is why so many of them have faded to brown.  If you scrape the outer black surface of the handsets, you'll see the wood flour filler that's used in bakelite.

When you hang an F1 up, the sharp sound that bakelite would normally make is dampened by the soft plastic base it's being set down on, be it a 302 or a 5302.  Knock two F1s together, and you'll hear that rigid bakelite "clack."

[McHeath]

Didn't Moses lead the Israelites in battle against the Ebonites near the plains of Bakelite?   

[Dan/Panther]

You might be right, but I thought the Ebonites came much later than Moses, are you sure you aren't thinking of Noah, and the Scrimshaws, down the Ivory coast ?
D/P

[Bill Cahill]

Naw... The Scrimshaws lived on the other side of Pike's Peak.
You're talking about the Hohlners. 
Bill Cahill

[Dan/Panther]

Yeah, but that's a Hohlner story.....
D/P

[Dan]

Ebonite and Ivory, live together in perfect harmony....