Ah, a chance to go into one of my phenolic tubing rants.
Ok, I'll restrain myself from ranting and go with some calm commentary instead-
I really don't like standard phenolic tubing. It's VERY brittle. I've had a few rockets that have had "less than optimal" landings and the phenolic tubing simply shattered in each occasion. These same type of landings have occurred with some of my other rockets - made from BlueTube, fibreglass, and even heavy paper - all of those survived just fine and/or were easily repaired. I've had phenolic motor mounts shatter on landings that really weren't all that hard. I even had a phenolic tube that was a tracker bay in a nose cone shatter on landing - again, not a particularly hard landing at that. That tubing never even took the direct impact, but it still broke.
Do NOT like phenolic tubing.
On a more positive note, I LOVE BlueTube. It's very similar to standard phenolics in terms of cost, weight, building/working qualities, etc. but it's TOUGH. It very easily handles those "less than optimal" landings, and bumps and grinds that are part of the rocketry game. Very good stuff.
My recommendation: if you are attracted to phenolic tubing, I say skip right over it and go with BlueTube. It's a drastically better option.
FWI,
s6