Help! Bakelite Bangles or ?

Bought these at auction as the listing claimed some were bakelite. I've been researching how to tell bakelite and one suggestion was Formula 409 (will turn yellow if it's true bakelite)

Is this safe for the item? Any other ways to determine value? No marks on any of them. TIA

 

cotton swab + baking soda
slightly moisten cotton wool with water, apply soda, rub. yellow, bakelite.
P.S.
If the Bakelite item is coated with varnish, the test will not show the correct result.

 

First look them over, if you see any seams that means moulded plastic, not Bakelite.

 

The center bangle on left, some carvings, could be bakelite, from the way it looks in the image. The others, hard to tell, and doubtful. Possibly also the beigy-light yellow bangle in the bottom row, middle. If it's bakelite it was probably white when newly made. The dusky discoloration is typical of old bakelite.

Without any invasive tests for bakelite (don't, for heavens' sakes, drill holes or stick hot pins in them, it will ruin them), one of the safest tests, and most accurate for bakelite depends on your nose. More specifically, on how good your sense of smell is.

To test, you rub a (clean, odorfree) finger on the piece to test. Rub fairly hard until the warmth from your finger releases the scent of the piece.

Smell your finger, not the piece! If you smell formaldehyde, it's bakelite. If it smells of anything else or nothing, it isn't.

If you never really smelled formaldehyde or bakelite before and are not sure how it smells, find a piece of known bakelite, maybe owned by a friend or in antique store, and do the finger test on it. This way you'll know what bakelite smell is and can try it at home next.

 

Oh, and something else, before testing with 409, baking soda or any other similar test give them a bath in warm, soapy water. If they are dirty they will give a false result.

 

The ones which might be Bakelite are the pale green geometric one and the deep yellow one. Not the stripes: I've a few of those and they're sixties plastic as is the pale yellow, I reckon.

 

Thank you all for the advice, SO helpful! I am going to get to work testing them, I'll do an update with what I find!