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it sounds like plastic bindings are now just as expensive as any wood bindings

Not correct. TS and ivoroid are celluloid, which is a very close cousin of TNT.

Plain white and black bindings and purflings are not celluloid, and are not flammable.

I have a lot of clients who prefer plastics over wood bindings. No woods look like TS bindings or ivoroid, or the pure white and plain black. Plastics are better on fretboards, also, as they don't get grungy-looking like light colored woods do. Plastics also protect against bumps and dings better.

Since I've always cut my own wood bindings, even flamed maple bindings have always been cheaper than plastics for me. Wood bindings have always seemed easier to install, for me, since we can use plain 'ol wood glue. So, the choice is not always about costs or ease; sometimes,we choose plastics simply because they are better for the situation.Mario39024.8393287037

Oops btw - I totally understand about the shipping cost now.

Shhhhhhhh!

Nitro lacquer, once cured, is but a solid film of an inert substance; safe even for children's toys. And I believe there are no nitrates in today's' nitrocellulose lacquers. But nitric acid is still a primary ingredient in celluloid plastics. It is this that won it its haz-mat rating.

The bindings, once installed, have less than half of their original surface area exposed, and are encased by the finish, anyhow.

A little edumacating goes a long way towards making sense of things.... Stop picking on the suppliers.

[QUOTE=Don Williams]
Yes, tortoise-shell and ivoroid bindings fall into that category of being highly flammable. Oddly enough, so do ping-pong balls. They're pretty much the same material.
[/QUOTE]

so why do pingpong balls bounce if you drop them from a 4th floor window onto a hard pavement.......



when a tortoise will splash?

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[QUOTE=Don Williams]   Oddly enough, so do ping-pong balls. They're pretty much the same material.
[/QUOTE]

And very useful for the guitar player. sections cut from ping-pong balls make the perfect artificial nail (superglued on) if one of your own gets attacked by the belt sander! The tone is very nail-like. Saved many a gig.

ColinColin S39025.1940740741

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[QUOTE=Colin S] [QUOTE=Don Williams]   Oddly enough, so do ping-pong balls. They're pretty much the same material.
[/QUOTE]

And very useful for the guitar player. sections cut from ping-pong balls make the perfect artificial nail (superglued on) if one of your own gets attacked by the belt sander! The tone is very nail-like. Saved many a gig.

Colin[/QUOTE]

Colin,

Just be careful to have the fire extinguisher handy when you come to those super-fast sections

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". . . the one thing a machine just can't do is give you character and personalities and sometimes that comes with flaws, but it always comes with humanity" Monty Don talking about hand weaving, "Mastercrafts", Weaving, BBC March 2010

[QUOTE=Dave White] [QUOTE=Colin S] [QUOTE=Don Williams]   Oddly enough, so do ping-pong balls. They're pretty much the same material.
[/QUOTE]

And very useful for the guitar player. sections cut from ping-pong balls make the perfect artificial nail (superglued on) if one of your own gets attacked by the belt sander! The tone is very nail-like. Saved many a gig.

Colin[/QUOTE]


Just be careful to have the fire extinguisher handy when you come to those super-fast sections [/QUOTE]

That's why I always have a pint of Fuller London Pride handy. Just to quench the flames you understand.

ColinColin S39025.2493287037

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I don't believe in anything, I simply make use of a set of reasonable working hypotheses.

Todd, most of the cleaning products in the cleaning aisle at the grocery store contain haz mat chemicals within them. But once these things get mixed in with other stuff, they only become a small percentage of the final product, thus, they get a new label.

The mass of all the bindings, totaled, are likely less than 1-2% of a guitar.

A little perspective, please. Sniffer dogs don't pick out shipments of guitars, but a crate full of celluloid supposedly sets them off. Thus, haz mat got involved.

The chaff-to-wheat ratio is beginning to really suffer on this forum with all the hijacks...