Amber Listserv / Amber Care

[Tom Buckley]

Chris,

    In your experience, how is this stuff different from the more traditional epoxy resins? Do you still have to pull a vacuum to remove air bubbles and get the resin into all the cracks and crevices? Also, the fact that it's described as biodegradable has me wondering as to how long it will last once used to encapsulate the amber. Sorry for all the questions but the Ward's site doesn't give much info. Thanks.

Tom 

Tom Buckley
Silicone Specialist
Polymer Engineering

Phone: 845-258-4928
Fax: 845-258-4930
  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Christopher Albrecht 
  To: amber at ambericawest.com 
  Sent: Saturday, March 10, 2007 8:14 PM
  Subject: Re: Amber Listserv / Amber Care


  Hi Everyone:

  I have experimented with bioplastic resin. It works wonders with very brittle New Jersey ambers. I embed the piece in the resin and then polish one part back to the amber. The hard resin stablizes the amber. Search the term "bioplastic" online and you will find suppliers. It is expensive also. I got mine from Wards.

  This brings me back to a question I asked the list 3 months ago, which noone gave comment to. A lot of time we bag a piece of amber with a paper label. Can paper, which often has an acid content to it, cause amber to change chemically? John, your the chemist... any ideas? I have started to double bag pieces with the label in the second outer bag separate from the amber piece as a precaution. Some pieces of paper in with pieces from the DR and New Jersey chaged color over time from the amber. I did not see this effect with Canadian amber, Burmese or Baltic.

  My two cents...

  Pax, Chris Albrecht


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