French Galalith

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elkhorn

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Made a couple of pens for the grandkids today. Both made on the PSI skull kit in antique pewter and dressed with some black and gray striped French Galalith that I thought went well with the kit. I messed up on the coupler on the second pen and gave a quick call to PSI. They were kind enough to offer to send me a new coupler for the one I messed up.

C & C always welcome.
 

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plantman

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WOW !!! There is a seller on E-Bay that has a large supply of old french Galalith. A couple things to watch when buying. Check carefully the size of the rods for length and diameter as many are just over 1/2" round !! Also the seller is in France, and the shipping is $25 to the USA. Jim S
 
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elkhorn

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Thanks, Derek & Jim, I appreciate it!

Dale, put your mind to rest:) The pattern is in the blank.

Mike, thanks. I purchased them on eBay.

Jim, thank you as well for the WOW. You're also correct. You have to carefully check out the length and diameter. They're usually given in mm and the seller I purchased from was also from France.
 

elkhorn

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Carl and Jim, thank you both!

For those of you that have never heard of galalith, here's a little write-up I found:

"Casein, the protein in milk was used by the Ancient Egyptians as a fixative for pigments in wall paintings. It has also been used as a constituent in various glues but it appears not to have been used as the basis of a solid plastics material until the end of the 19th century. Krisch, head of a large firm of printers in Hanover experimented with casein to make a washable white board for replacing the slates used in school - paper was too expensive at that time for use by children to practice writing. He collaborated with Adolf Spitteler, a chemist in Bavaria and on July 15th 1899, a patent for "plastic compositions" was taken out in Germany.

The patent was taken up by firms in Germany (Vereinigten Gummivarenfabriken, at its factory in Harburg) and in France by Pellerin and Orosdi (Compagnie Francaise de la Galalithe, at Levallois Perret). The product was introduced under the trade name Galalith and was first shown at the Paris Universal Exhibition in 1900. A lot of development work was still required to produce a stable material, and the two companies merged in 1904 to form the International Galalith Gesellschaft Hoff and Company with a new factory in Harburg. A process starting with dried casein granules, known as the dry process, was developed and this was to become the universally adopted method for casein plastics manufacture and remained virtually unchanged throughout its history."

Have a great weekend everyone!
 
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SteveG

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Expanding the knowledge base...

From Wikipedia: Galalith (Erinoid in the United Kingdom) is a synthetic plastic material manufactured by the interaction of casein and formaldehyde. Given a commercial name derived from the Greek words gala (milk) and lithos (stone), it is odourless, insoluble in water, biodegradable, antiallergenic, antistatic and virtually nonflammable.
 
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