Bakelite, an amber-colored plastic material, is the trademark name for the phenol-formaldehyde resin invented by Belgian-American chemist Leo Hendrik Baekeland. It is known as one of the first synthetic plastics, derived from methanol and coal tar. Once having a wide variety of uses, Bakelite today is crafted into things such as vintage and collectible jewelry, billiard balls, board game pieces and firearm magazines.

In 1907, Baekeland was seeking a more durable replacement for shellac and hard rubber. Experimenting with various pressure and temperature settings, he discovered a moldable plastic that became very hard when cooled and dried. Baekeland announced his findings of the new chemical oxynenzyl-methylenglycolanhydride, or Bakelite, at the American Chemical Society in 1909. The New York Times hailed the new material as an economical replacement for celluloid and hard rubber. Bakelite is fire resistant, and it proved valuable for use in components such as radio housing, machine gun parts, car brake cylinders, electrical receptacles and electric iron parts.

Bakelite was widely used in the 1920s and 1930s in the United States and Great Britain. Manufacturers adeptly fashioned multitudes of materials from the hefty, durable plastic. Bakelite was crafted into rotary-dial telephones, radios, cameras, electric guitars, appliance parts, light switches, door knobs, letter openers, bangles and more. Bakelite was even under consideration by the United States Mint as a replacement for copper in making pennies.

The use of Bakelite declined after World War II, when lighter and more colorful plastics were developed. Today, Bakelite products are considered valuable antiques and remnants of an optimistic era of burgeoning scientific advances and developments. Jewelry designers lovingly recycle Bakelite from antique radios or appliance part castoffs into new jewelry pieces, creating something new from the old. Bakelite is also the unsung and unseen hero of hip-joint replacement parts, pacemakers and cataract lenses.

In 1988, authors of The Bakelite Jewelry Book exposed a counterfeit Bakelite product named "fakelite." The authors expressed concern that fakelite would devalue the vintage Bakelite jewelry market. Bakelite antique collectors perform a certain metal polish test to detect fakelite from Bakelite; when wiped with polish, Bakelite will rub off, leaving a yellowish stain on the cloth. Fakelite also produces a pungent petroleum odor when rubbed or warmed, but Bakelite emits a distinctly formaldehyde odor.