The Couroc Company in Monterey California produced many different types and shapes of trays, boxes, ashtrays and glassware from 1948 until their closure in the early 1990s and this one is not a cheese tray but a little larger and without the wood cutting board. I loved the use of brass !?o!c!!?oo to indicate the parrots song - so creative!
The finish was dull and gray so I googled how others had cleaned these phenolic plastic works of art and learned that phenolic plastic was first manufactured under the trade name Bakelite after the inventor of the plastic Dr. Leo Hendrik Baekeland.
Seems there are several methods to shine up this early plastic, all of which involve some some combination of a fine rubbing compound (grit) to remove the oxidised layer exposing a new layer of unoxidised resin, and elbow grease!
Metal Polish / Brasso / Simichrome Polish can be used, but are relatively coarse abrasives, we chose the chrome polish method and it seems to work fine for the Couroc trays.
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| Couroc Makers Mark |
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| Couroc Cheese Board Tray |
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| Couroc Parrot Tray |
Links
Restoring Bakelite
Buying Couroc Trays
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