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When Bakelite emits a foul odor

By on April 13, 2019 in Care, Parts

When we think of overheating plastic, we think of plastic melting.  But Bakelite is a little different.  When overheated, it doesn’t melt, but instead breaks down into its constituent parts, one of which (formaldehyde) smells nasty, and isn’t good to inhale.

Bakelite is safe to 350 degrees Fahrenheit; putting it in an oven is not a good idea.  The most common culprit for overheating is a gas stove where the flames are too high, and the lick up the sides of a sauce pan and heat the handles directly.

While we always assumed that overheating was the only ways to cause problems, there is at least one anecdotal report that once overheated, Bakelite may be sensitive to overheating at a lower temperature.

After many years steady use, I’m getting toxic fumes when I use them on anything but very low heat. It smells exactly like burnt plastic and the fumes seem unhealthful, not just smelly. I’m assuming it’s the handles, but they don’t seem degraded more than normal for their age. I do have a gas stove and tried lowering the flame, since the flames can lick around the edge of the pan and up toward the handles. But I am still getting the fumes strongly, even when the handles are very warm at all.

If you have the same issue, or if your handles have previously been overheated and seem sensitive to even lower heat, it is probably safest to replace your handles.  If replacement isn’t an option (you have one that we don’t make) you might try restoring them as described here, being sure to remove any Bakelite that looks damaged, to get to undamaged Bakelite.

To to sure, Bakelite is known to be safe as it has been used on cookware, and many other products, for around 80 years.  When used properly, there is no danger.  But it does have the potential for misuse if it is used in the oven or on too high heat.  It is better to be safe than sorry.

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Revere Ware world tour

By on April 10, 2019 in Interesting

Every once in a while, one of our shipments goes on a while ride far away from where it should have been destined.  This seems to be some mis-routing by the USPS.  Once a package gets severely mis-routed, it usually disappears and never returns. The frequency of these mis-routings seems to has increased in the last year, and the one we discovered today is the worst.

It departed our shippers on February 27th destined for Canada.  From the shippers, it made its way to to Los Angeles, and then San Francisco, and then, um, Paris France.

Apparently someone figured out the mistake because it came back to first Jamaica, NY, and then Newark, NJ.  But then, for some reason, it went back to France where it arrived yesterday.

After 6 weeks of travel (packages normally take a week or less to Canada), and two visits to France, this one takes the cake.  I can’t wait to see where it goes next.

The moral of this story is, if your package seems inordinately delayed, please contact us.  If we determine it is unlikely to arrive in a timely fashion, or at all, we’ll send another package.

Update 4/12/19

Well the Postal Service in the US and France must be very proud of themselves.  Somehow they delivered this to someone in France.

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When replacement isn’t an option – restoring Bakelite

By on April 3, 2019 in DIY, Parts

We sell quite a few replacement Bakelite handles and what now now, but there are some parts that don’t have enough demand for us to produce, given the minimum quantity we must order for each part we make.

Assuming it isn’t cracked, restoring an old, faded Bakelite part is the only option.  There used to be a restoration service (that was expensive) that was an option before we started producing parts, that involved sanding the Bakelite with progressively finer sandpapers.

But we just came across a guide that makes it sound much more simple.

Step 1

Wipe down the handle with warm soapy water to wash away as much of the grime as possible.

Step 2

Rinse with warm water and dry with a clean cloth.

Step 3

Buff away deep scratches gently with fine gauge sandpaper.

Step 4

Apply liquid metal polish in a tight circular motion with a clean cloth. Rub with as much pressure as needed to polish away the accumulation of stains and dirt. Wait for the polish to haze over.

Step 5

Rub with a clean, dry cloth to remove the polish.

In terms of what fine gauge sandpaper is required, I am guessing perhaps 200, 400, or 600 grit would be possible options.

 

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Rethinking colored Bakelite parts

By on March 28, 2019 in Parts

Colored Revere Ware Bakelite parts come up for sale on eBay occasionally, and often sell for ridiculous prices (like this).

But a slew of colored knob listings recently, has me wondering if all the colored Bakelite parts are just painted.  All these recent listings appear to be.

 

Bakelite can be made to be just about any color, and perhaps these knobs are simply ones that were painted by the owner and not the company.

We’ve been asked from time to time if we would produce a series of colored Bakelite parts, but that is a difficult proposition, as there is typically a minimum order quantity of any color we would have to run that is in the thousands; there isn’t likely to be _that_ much demand for colored parts.

Given what we are seeing above, your best bet might be to just get a can of high temperature paint and paint them yourself.

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eBay drop-ship retail arbitrage

By on March 13, 2019 in Amazon, Ebay, Parts

We wrote a post on eBay retail arbitrage, termed by them as drop-ship listings, in 2017.  Since then, the problem has only gotten worse, with something around 150 currently listed items on eBay that are merely fronts for our parts sold on Amazon.com.

To refresh your memory on how this works, someone lists something currently sold on Amazon.com on eBay, with a markup.  When the order is placed on eBay, they have software that automatically places the order on Amazon.com with the eBay purchaser as the recipient.

We don’t like it as we prefer our customers get the items at a more reasonable price, and it can result in some odd activity on the other end when such drop-shipping sellers leave us negative feedback on Amazon.com; negative feedback on Amazon.com is a huge problem as compared to eBay.  on eBay, most buyers are motivated to leave feedback, whether they had a good or bad experience.  An Amazon.com, feedback is not at all integrated into the ethos of the site; there are disproportionately more negative feedback reviews per sales volume than on eBay because most of the people with a positive experience don’t bother to leave feedback.

eBay has a policy against drop-shippers that don’t actually hold inventory.  However it appears they don’t actually enforce this policy (see the chat with eBay support in that article).

In any event, what we worry most about is the damage to our brand that a poor buying experience can have.  What I mean by that is, our primary purpose in selling these parts is to make people happy and to provide them with a satisfactory buying experience.  Given the pain that Revere Ware owners went through for decades before we came on the scene 10 years ago.  Most people are thrilled that our parts are available, and we don’t want to temper that with a bad experience.

So, please buy our parts from our own website or Amazon.com, not from eBay, as we don’t list any parts there.

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The demise of the Revere Ware brand – the insult continues

By on March 10, 2019 in History, Interesting

In the ongoing saga of the thoughtless silent termination of the official Revere Ware brand, I have come across yet another prescient indicator of how little thought actually went into the decision and its aftermath.

If you search for Revere Ware on Google, here is the first result:

This takes you to this page on the Corelle website:

How fitting … it simply no longer exists.  But you can still sign up for Revere news and promotions.  And, rather than revising this page further than the no longer exists message, they left the prior categories of products (Stainless Steel, Hard Anodized, Open Stock, and Sets) and simply replaced the images with stock photos of other Corelle products that don’t at all related to the titles.

And to top it all off, they proudly announce at the top, Revere, since 1801.

Despite the fact that the most iconic Revere Ware products, the copper bottom cookware, was a complete dud as a quality product for the last decade few decades, it is sad that Revere Ware met such a demise, rather than passing the brand on to someone else that might make a better go of it.

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Corelle buys Instant Pot

By on March 5, 2019 in History

In what is being called a merger, Corelle Brands, which owns the Revere Ware brand, but quietly buried it last year, is acquiring Instant Pot maker Instant Brands.

There are a couple of reasons this is considered news with respect to Revere Ware.  The first is that, in the news releases and other coverage about the merger, there is no mention of the Revere Ware brand.  To date, we haven’t seen any coverage of the quiet demise of Revere Ware, and this is no different.

The second, is that, as we pointed out, the Revere Ware Meal-n-Minutes is somewhat the spiritual precursor of the Instant Pot.  The Meal-n-Minutes, which came out in the 80’s, is almost exactly an Instant Pot.  This is sort of a full circle for the owners of the Revere Ware brand.

Similar?  You be the judge.  Instant Pot on top, Meal-n-Minutes on the bottom.

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Strange speckled handles from the early Revere Ware days

By on February 25, 2019 in History

Karen sent us these picture of some very strange Revere Ware handles, that appear to be black paint over a speckled (Bakelite, we think) handle.

From our photo guide, we know that the logo and handle style put the piece somewhere between 1939 and 1946.  My guess is that this was some kind of early production model or prototype.

If anyone has more information on this type of handle, please contact us.

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So you think YOUR Bakelite is in rough shape?

By on February 18, 2019 in Parts

I sometimes get a chuckle out of seeing poor shape of people’s beloved Revere Ware, that they simply refuse to let go of.  I’ve heard a few stories of the lid without a knob that is used with a pair of pliers kept nearby.  We often get pictures of really damaged Bakelite handles that people have been using that way for years.

It’s not surprising that people soldier on using damaged cookware thinking they won’t be able to find replacement parts.  While we’ve been selling them now for ten years, before we came on the scene, there was a good 30 years where parts were not available.

Today’s winner in that department is Alex, who sent us these pictures of his skillet.

I can only imagine how long they have been held together that way.

Sadly, that is the early style handle for which we don’t have a direct replacement, although our replacement handles can be used with those for a somewhat imperfect fit.

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