How about a bakelite tea tray?

Bakelite tea tray was invented by a tea friend named Cai in Taiwan Province in the late 1980s. Mr. Cai himself is engaged in CNC machining. He made a tea tray for himself with a "bakelite board". Because of its simple shape and extremely convenient use, it quickly spread in his circle of friends and became popular in the field of tea art in Taiwan Province Province. Then, how about bakelite tea tray? How about bakelite tea tray? Let's have a look.

Pot merchants in Taiwan Province Province brought tea trays made of this material to Yixing, Jiangsu Province in the early 1990s. Because it has the advantages of no cracking, no damage to the pot, smooth drainage and convenient maintenance. Soon it was highly praised by domestic pot friends. Friends who like tea come from all walks of life. Except for a few people in related industries who know this material, its properties and uses, most friends will be unfamiliar with this material and tea trays made of this material. This article just wants to let everyone know more about bakelite tea tray through some introductions.

The first choice is to talk about materials.

"Bakelite" is the name of this material in Taiwan Province Province. Its scientific name is phenolic cotton board. It is made by soaking cotton cloth in phenolic resin, heating, melting, drying and hot pressing. Phenolic cotton board has good electrical and mechanical properties under normal conditions. It is widely used as insulating structural parts in machinery, motors and electrical equipment, and can be used as transformer oil. High-grade phenolic cotton cloth is suitable for making parts of precision mechanical products that need to be used in harsh environment, such as rubber belt gear bearing bush and guide wheel. Phenolic cotton board is an industrial insulating material. It is also divided into several grades according to different uses. Their prices are also quite different.

As a tea drinker who uses this material as a tea tray, how should he distinguish the quality of this material?

First look at the density of cotton yarn in the board. The cloth used for the top cotton board is close to silk, the yarn is extremely fine and uniform, and the cloth is also very thin. A 50 mm thick board needs thousands of pieces of cloth to be stacked together. So the price is very expensive. Worst of all, the yarn density is almost the same as that of woven bags or sacks. Its price is correspondingly much cheaper.

On the other hand, the fibers of cotton cloth are completely invisible. This kind of tea tray may be finely processed and smooth to the touch, but it has a heavy "plastic feeling". This is the "paper-based" board that we often hear. I have never used a paper-based tea tray, and I don't know what the effect will be. However, I have consulted experts in Taiwan Province Province, and they told me that the electrical and mechanical properties of paper substrates are much lower than those of cotton boards of the same level for industrial use. So the price of paper-based paperboard is much lower than that of cotton board. Basically, the price of top-grade paper-based paperboard is only equivalent to the price of low-grade cotton board.

Another way is to smell: a good bakelite tea tray should be tasteless.

In order to reduce the cost, some domestic plate manufacturers use old phenolic resin in the process of plate pressing, commonly known as "recycled material". The recycled phenolic resin undergoes degradation reaction, and a large amount of ammonia will be released continuously at room temperature. As we all know, ammonia is an irritating gas and stinks. In the domestic insulation industry, this used recycled phenolic resin is called "smelly phenol". It can be seen that "smelly" is an important feature of it, and it is not difficult to distinguish it.

When purchasing bakelite tea trays, it should be noted that when a new tea tray has just been opened or a tea tray that has been used for a while is poured with hot water, if the tea tray emits a strong smell, it can be concluded that it is a tray suppressed by "smelly phenol". "Smell" is caused by the degradation of phenolic resin. It is generally not easy to remove. It is naive to imagine that the smell will disappear after a period of time.

At present, the bakelite tea tray that can be seen on the market, the stronger the "taste", the cheaper it is. You can choose according to your own preferences. After all, bakelite tea trays are said to last for thousands of years and are super durable products. Normal use will not be a problem for 30 to 50 years. We suggest that you choose a tea tray with better material as far as possible according to your own economic conditions. A tea tray with authentic materials, exquisite workmanship, convenient use and good protection for the pot is what everyone really expects.

Next, let's talk about the processing technology:

Bakelite tea tray produced in Taiwan Province Province is designed in computer, programmed into CNC machining center, and processed at one time. The treatment time varies with the size of the tea tray, ranging from a few hours to a day.

Then it is polished by hand. The high processing cost is also the main reason for the high price of finished tea trays. In order to reduce the processing cost, some bakelite tea trays produced in China are partially or completely processed by ordinary milling machines. As we all know, domestic labor is cheap. However, manual operation has led to the rough appearance of many domestic tea trays.

Finally, talk about the advantages of bakelite tea tray:

The first is simple and durable. Some people may think it is monotonous, but it is not. The more concise things, the more you can save them for the last!

Secondly, there is no concern about cracking, because the material itself has certain elasticity and is not easy to hurt the pot. All these people on earth know.

One thing you may not have noticed is that the pot on the bakelite tea tray is always dry at the bottom no matter how often it is used. This stems from the excellent drainage design of bakelite tea tray. This function ensures the uniform luster of the pot, and will not leave a circle of watermark at the bottom of the pot. Perhaps this is the core reason why bakelite tea trays are highly praised by professional pot merchants and senior pot friends.

A good bakelite tea tray will have the feeling of old mahogany. But this is not the most important thing. Compared with the solid wood tea tray, it is enough to keep the pot from cracking!