Amber Listserv / Heating Baltic

[Don Bailey]

In fairness to some of my suppliers.  I have purchased Baltic amber from Germany that is untreated.
   
  The only reason I know of to heat amber is to cause "spangles".  This is done by heating amber to 500 degrees or so.  This causes any trapped moisture in the amber to expand into a gas.  The expansion causes the small fractures we all call "spangles".
   
  Just the other day I got a lady VERY mad at me.  She was selling an "amber" necklace to someone and was telling her customer that the little "spangles" were insects.  I just had to speak up.  To make things worse the necklace was selling for $45.00 and had a good 5 oz of polished "amber" on it.  Needless to say the customer did not buy the necklace and the seller told me where to go.
   
  Oh,  by the way you can get "spangles" in epoxy resin.  This necklace was obviously clear epoxy resin.
   
  Don

kirk stephan <kirkstephan at hotmail.com> wrote:
      


  What I've discoverd (and this posting makes total sense) is that 98% of all Baltic amber is treated in SOME way, including radioactive stimulation! Which is why I've avoided the material for years. Here's a couple of shots of completely natural red amber I get from Chiapas and polish myself-I've never seen any treatment of this material.





  'Invite to my site,of course< http://geocities.com/kirkstephany/tools.htm
   
    
---------------------------------
  From: "Derek" <stoneage at vermontel.net>
To: "amber" <amber at ambericawest.com>
Subject: Amber Listserv / Heating Baltic
Date: Thu, 16 Aug 2007 11:33:13 -0400

          I've been in touch with a gemmologist who swears that most baltic amber is, "annealed" to keep it from being too brittle. 
   
  This is new to me. 
   
  I wonder what everyone understands about this subject. 
   
  Derek Levin

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