The other complication in the Faturan / Bakelite / Phenolic bead biz is that I recently discovered that block, rods, and sheets of phenolic resin are being "mined" from old industrial dump sites in Germany (and probably elsewhere in Europe) and sold online. There are also people selling old stock that they probably got from defunct suppliers of industrial materials. So, it is also possible for newly machined beads to be made from "original faturan".

The chemical formulas of all phenolic resins are very similar, and I doubt it is possible to distinguish them after they are cured (still working on that though). The variations in appearance of the final product (beads) will be from the different color dyes added, as well as fillers that will turn the material opaque. Also, semi-translucent beads with swirls of clear resin or different colors were produced. As far as I can tell, phenolic resin factories would produce a large array of products, as they still do.