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Vulcanite being discontinued


Jeff S

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It hasn't been proper vulcanite for decades, it's "vulcanite" they are discontinuing.

 

Yep, beginning with the M4-P in the 80's...changed from vulcanized rubber to vinyl.

 

Real vulcanite, though, is a rare copper telluride mineral.;)

 

Jeff

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My M4-2 had real vulcanite (hard rubber) like the M4, M2, M3 etc. I dropped it and the vulcanite "broke" and came off in shards.

 

M4-P was originally made with vulcanite (at least I had one that was) - that may have changed during the transition to Solms construction and the intro of the M6, which is definitely vinyl.

 

So now we have a change to a different vinyl (in addition to the previous introduction of black "sharkskin texture" vinyl on the MP, M8, and steel gray M9s.)

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Excerpt of Cassell's Cyclopaedia of Mechanics:

 

« Vulcanite is made by heating indiarubber with about half its weight of sulphur, and is coloured by incorporating with it mineral pigments - lampblack for black, antimony sulphide or vermilion for red, zinc white for white, etc. In making plates on which artificial teeth are fixed, the vulcanite, while hot, is pressed to shape in moulds, the teeth being previously fixed in the moulds in the positions they are to occupy. »

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So is it "rare copper telluride mineral" or vulcanised rubber finally?

 

Vulcanized rubber. The rare mineral citation was merely to indicate that 'proper' vulcanite has an entirely different meaning in other areas.

 

The definition of vulcanized rubber quoted in your post corresponds fairly consistently to the definition in the Leica FAQ that I linked (which was written by a chemist).

 

Of course, then there's the term Ebonite, but that's another discussion.

 

Jeff

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The rare copper telluride mineral presumably is from the planet Vulcan (where mr. Spock lives) so it is the latter not the former.

 

EDIT: I stand corrected it is (also) a mineral.

 

A mineral, indeed, as I said in post #3. But, did you know that the greenish hue of the Vulcan characters' skin in the Trek series was due to their copper-based blood? So, you weren't far off.;)

 

Jeff

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A mineral, indeed, as I said in post #3. But, did you know that the greenish hue of the Vulcan characters' skin in the Trek series was due to their copper-based blood? So, you weren't far off.;)

 

Jeff

Implying that Vulcans and snails are closely related (snail blood is green & copper based haemocyanin).
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That is just the stupidest thing I have ever heard. The Vulcanite material is "No longer available"??? What??? Doesn't anybody MAKE anything anymore???

 

The reason for this change is that Leica didn't order enough of the Vulcanite to take them through M9 production this year and now do not want to order another batch, probably because the minimum order size is too large and the M10 will use something different. This "new" material was probably "in stock" with the supplier. The other scenario I've seen is that the supplier ran the wrong material and now doesn't want to get stuck, so he's telling Leica that the Vulcanite is unavailable (my guess is they blamed the tool).

 

It sounds as if Leica could use some improvement in their global sourcing department.

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