[Arran]

I wonder if it's an issue with some tape and not others? I have a collection of 8 track cartridges from various years and have never noticed the oxide flaking off of any of them, some were very badly treated, buried in dirt, mangled by the machine, etc. However I have one where the graphite keeps flaking off of the back of the tape, which means that I have to clean the head frequently if I try playing it, it's was a blank cart for home recording, no a prerecorded one. I can't remember who supplied the tape to the eight track cart manufacturers, they tended to use plastic cases of their own design however, such as RCA carts were different from Columbia ones, and Columbia different from Learjet ones, etc.
Regards
Arran