Galalith is infrequently found as the material used for production on heer grips. It may have been used on other grips but I have not seen other examples so I stand to be corrected. I was intrigued by the use of this material for which I have found the following information.

Galalith (Erinoid in the United Kingdom),

In 1898 Wilhelm Krische, owner of a factory that made history books & a stone printing shop, patented one of the first plastics. This material Galalith - the word is formed from the Greek words for milk & stone = milk stone - was used in the nineteen twenties & thirties as a jewellery stone. As is frequently the case it’s discovery was accidental. The Hanover based factory owner was commissioned to develop white school boards that could be wiped clean. Although critical experiments with the milk protein casein were in vain with regard to the original commission, the horn - like plastic from the element of milk had been discovered, even though no one really knew what to use it for. At the beginning of the 20th century, a French chemist, J.C. Trillat, discovered the means to make casein insoluble by immersion in formaldehyde.

The numerous advantages of galalith soon became apparent . It was fast & inexpensive to produce & was also easy to process. The milk stone could be cut, drilled embossed & even dyed without difficulty thus producing gem stone imitations that looked strikingly real. No other plastic at that time could compete with such favourable characteristics. Huge quantities of milk literally flowed into the production of galalith by the turn of the century. In 1913 30 million litres of milk were used to produce galalith in Germany alone!

Galalith first made it’s mark on society in the form of objects for everyday use. This material revolutionized the button industry with its capacity to create structural effects and imitate all sorts of material: horn, tortoiseshell, ivory, wood, etc. It was also used in the 1930s for jewellery, pens, umbrella handles, etc. World production at that time reached 10.000 tons. By the nineteen twenties fashion designers increasingly turned to the material for costume jewellery.

Galalith reached it’s absolute golden age in the mid nineteen thirties. Shortly before the second world war the production was restricted & eventually banned upon the outbreak of war. Milk was primarily needed for daily nutritional requirements, while the residual production of galalith was almost exclusively used for electro - technical purposes. Galalith cannot be moulded, and is manufactured in the form of sheets of different thickness, sticks and tubes, and is therefore worked by hand. After the end of the war the material was suppressed by the use of more modern plastics that could be cast & heat moulded.

More information on properties & usage.

Casein has been described as "the most beautiful of plastics" and was produced in a wide variety of colours including delicate pastel shades, pearls and mottles, especially those imitating tortoiseshell and horn. The material also readily takes a surface dye and this process was extensively used to produce fashionable colours at short notice and for two colour effects by selectively cutting back the dyed surface layer. Casein plastics take an attractive polish which can be achieved mechanically with abrasives (except for surface-dyed material) or chemically by immersion in hot, hypochlorite solution - known as dip polish. Casein plastics are most frequently encountered in the form of buttons, buckles and knitting needles but it was also used for fountain pens, propelling pencils, dress ornaments, knife handles, necklaces, dressing table ware, manicure sets and a wide variety of items generally referred to as "fancy goods". It also found limited use for low voltage electrical plugs, sockets or jacks, mainly red or black, in the 1920s and 30s and sometimes as components of early telephones.
The manufacture of casein is a slow, batch process requiring the material finally to be hardened by immersion in formaldehyde solution - sections of about 25mm thickness requiring up to one year. Casein cannot be readily moulded although sheet can be pressed into a limited range of shapes, such as shallow bowls and candlestick bases, by 'hot stamping' . Instead, casein objects are fabricated from stock material such as sheet, rod or tube. Button blanks were stamped from sheet or sliced from rod but in the early years most were trepanned from sheet material. As a button material it is resistant to washing, dry cleaning and can withstand momentary contact with a hot iron - unlike most other competitive early plastics materials, but with the advent of the newer plastics after 1945 its use gradually declined. However, limited quantities of casein plastics are still produced in some countries with large dairy interests, for example New Zealand, but specialised buttons are probably the only casein items manufactured today.

Given the information above It is interesting that galalith grips are to be found on post 1939 daggers when availability of the material was severely restricted. It is was also surprising to note that the galalith grips would have been "crafted" & therefore more expensive to produce. This raises a question from me of whether they may perhaps have been "special orders" at a premium cost?
Certainly by 1940 it was known that the Trolon grips were changing colour. If anyone has any information from period catalogues I should be grateful for any contribution.

Today the only daggers that remain as they were intended to be are the galalith & celluloid examples of which the galalith are the least common.

Wow, I heard of the stuff but never seen it or handled it, but this is a brilliant piece of research and no doubt aided by T'net.

Well done and thanx

Nolan

Wish I could say I had spent a day in the library poring over old tomes but yes those days have gone I was prompted to add the info here because my own search for information yielded very little. Hopefully anyone doing the same will now find the above.

Thanks!

GREAT Info.!!! Thanks!
Makes you wonder!

Landser, My compliments for presenting a very interesting brief history of casein plastic.

I think that technical discussions bring an additional very beneficial dimension to collecting because we often forget the challenges that producers faced when trying to create the objects we collect. And technical discussions also help to understand why we see daggers in certain configurations. Or why changes were made in the way or materials that were used to make them.

I do, however, have a little different perspective on where casein plastics might fit into the picture. They were never as popular in the U.S. as other plastics. In the U.S. the bulk of the casein produced went into things like adhesives and finishes. And while earlier German production of casein plastic (Galalith) was greater. In the immediate prewar period (circa 1935) casein plastic production in Germany had declined to 3000 tons a year. Versus 15,000 tons of phenolics - which was BEFORE the large scale adoption of molded phenolics for the military.

While they had some advantages, casein plastics also had limitations. A hygroscopic plastic, casein has some resistance to heat and burning. But can begin to discolor at 130 °F. And is subject to swelling, warping, and surface crazing. And loses some of its insulating properties as well if exposed to moisture. It’s also not particularly resistant to acids, and especially alkalis.

With aged dagger grips they can show the crazing, discoloration, and shrinkage that can happen under less than optimal storage conditions. It was because of these drawbacks that it seems to be seen with later daggers when the thermosetting cast phenolic resins become scarce. (The drawback of course to cast phenolic resin were the color changes - but they did not swell, warp, or craze.)

The thermosetting urea's and then melamine resins got around the coloration problems of the cast phenolics. But were too late to have a significant impact on dagger production - as only I.G. Farbenindustrie AG achieved notable commercial production of the urea's and melamine's. And by then the military had a lock on production anyway (which is also why the phenolics disappeared from the scene.). Best Regards, FP

Thank you Fred,
I have only seen a couple of galalith grips & then only in images. However the porosity of the material did seem quite evident in the rather grubby appearance of the subject grips, presumably from handling & the inevitable transfer of perspiration in the palms & fingers. rather surprising then that it was considered very useful as an insulating material, but then that I suppose very much depends on the intended application.

What intrigued me most was the use of the material in grips given
a, The understandable restriction of milk for production of the material.
b,It required a long process of treating in formaldehyde (25mm thickness up to one year)
c, It was more labour intensive to craft or fashion the desired product.
Any consideration will no doubt ever be more than conjecture but it is curious. Of course it may just be a simple case of opportunism & using whatever became available.

I agree that the considering such matters of production adds a significant dimension in studying & appreciating our most prized posessions.

Thank you very much for the additional scientific & technical information!

regards

Vaughan

I believe the Kolping on the left is galalith while the Kolping on the right is 'trolon'.

Kloping used this type of grip on Army Daggers.

Perhaps we can compile a list of manufactureres known to have used galalith grips & determine the most likely period they were first used & maybe even compare them to determine if they might have come from one source? May have been one batch in a short time frame? Just a thought!

Here is one that Pvon is selling (Alcoso)
Paul I hope you don`t mind me borrowing this image.

It looks remarkably similar to the Kolping that Rich has posted above.

I know the majority of the examples I have seen have been alongside a Generic A crossguard, I cant say I remember seeing this material used too often on the larger makers like WKC, Holler or Eick. I have a Wingen and a Luneschloss.

I've at least one other galalith grp,but not sure if it's on a Christianswerk or a Fredericus.Or both!

I have a Kopling with a Galalith Grip that I am taking to MAX to sell. If anyone is interested, send me a PM and I will send some pictures.

Scott

hello Scott,
Could you perhaps show us a pic of the grip to compare with the above?
thanks!

Rich are you sure the Kopling on the right is not celluloid over plaster? I have not ever seen a Trolon that has not gone yellow or orange with time...
I do so love these Galalith grips. After seeing a few you can pick 'em out pretty easy. The surface is porus almost chalky in some cases and tend to get dirty easy. If you look at the surface careful under a eyeloop there is often microcracks.

The only Galalith griped dagger I have is an Alcoso with a "High Lift Eagle" crossguard.

A very few are still stone mint-quite white with good shine. I have had a few but they are scarce--most are dull and crazed.

lakesidetrader,I just took it apart and it's solid.I've a few other solid whites floating around.

Wow, that surprises me, but I'm always learning. I've never seen a Galalith with a shiny finish.
Thanks Rich learned something today!

Here is a link to a previous post with some good close-ups.
galalith grips

Thank You Bob!!

With so many threads disappearing I didn’t think to go looking. The reposted thread has some good examples of Galalith grips and some other types. Michael (M/P) posted an example that, if it's thermosetting, is almost certainly a urea/melamine solid white grip that does not change color. (Galalith is a thermoplastic.)

As I mentioned there Alfred Nobel & Co. (Dynamit AG) which made the “Trolon” brand of cast phenolic resin also manufactured a melamine/urea molding compound known as “Ultrapas”. Dynamit AG got a lot of its feed stock from I.G. Farbenindustrie to make into various products (like cellulose acetate - celluloid). And Solingen makers did seem to favor Dynamit AG, so I think that it’s a fairly reasonable assumption that Dynamit AG may have been the supplier.

FP

Great picture. The end appears to be turned on a lathe. I would guess these grips are cast and then finished by machining?

Heres a couple I shot off this morning, this tends to be generally what is seen on examples today after years of handling. On some of