Hi All,  Thanks to help from Gordon Ramsey, I believe I have
identified the material that was used to make the Standard valve
guides as 'commercial grade vulcanized fibre'.  I always wondered
why the guides were listed in the PPCo catalog as being made out
of "red fibre".  I thought they just misspelled the word or were
using the European spelling of the word 'fiber'.  Now, I believe
they used the correct word.

In looking through some of my other old parts, I found other
valve guides that are made from the same material.  So, it was
(what I would call) common in the industry, and it helps explain
why the material doesn't react with other metals, as would be the
case if it was a 'paper' product with some acid content.  By the way,
this material is commonly used as an insulator in electrical devices.

Musically,
John A Tuttle
Player-Care.com
Brick, New Jersey, USA