I have cast approx 29,000 items in this mold since 1997. I spray graphite in acetone on the mold as a lubricant about every 50 pours or so, and have never bothered to clean it off. The buildup can be seen covering the texture of the starfish mold, filling in the small details in the embossing. This is a good example of how embossing fades in old insulator molds, and a good example of how different surface textures are caused in old insulator production. There has been much speculation about "fading" embossing, orange peel glass texture, etc. in the hobby recently. Hopefully this picture will help to shed some light on the life of a production mold and it's buildup of lubricating graphite paste.