Synthetic amber in jewelry. How to distinguish natural amber from artificial?

Modern technologies do not stand still. Methods for making fake stones have also been greatly developed. This fate befell the beautiful and sunny amber. The quality of synthetic materials can mislead any buyer. In their beauty, transparency and brilliance, they can not be inferior to natural stone. Before purchasing a mineral, it is worth studying information on how to distinguish real amber.

Although there are more than enough deposits of real amber all over the world, unscrupulous manufacturers fake it using various methods. We wrote about the beneficial properties and who this mineral suits in this one.

Resin

Often, the resin of various tree species is given out as a natural stone. Such an imitation is softer than a natural gem. Fresh resin has a characteristic light aroma of needles. Amber is also capable of exuding a similar smell, but only after being set on fire or strongly rubbed. When viewed in the sun, the resin fake has a uniform structure. The stone has been growing for centuries, therefore it has layered inclusions.

Kopal

Copal is the resin of coniferous trees, which is not even 100 thousand years old. In comparison with it, amber is older - it is several million years old. A well-crafted fake is almost indistinguishable from the original. Even experienced jewelers do not visually distinguish a fake sample. It is possible to distinguish natural amber from a fake from copal by melting.

kauri

Kauri is a type of tree from which resin is extracted to fake a gem. Well-treated resin looks like natural stone, but it does not have the proper hardness. Kauri is not suitable for the production of jewelry. It is used in the manufacture of furniture.

The variety of amber jewelry today is amazing and can surprise even the most demanding customers. However, thanks to the active development of technology, and the imagination of manufacturers, it is rather problematic to purchase truly genuine amber, and not a cheap copy. How to distinguish a natural stone from an artificial gem at home? We will tell you about all the intricacies of choosing a piece of jewelry and help you choose the perfect jewelry for every amber lover.

Quite often, for large items inlaid with frozen resin, ordinary resin is used. In such cases, you can determine whether a fake is slipped into you by examining the gem. If it is natural, then it has small air clots, small frozen particles of insects, wavy blotches formed at the time of sintering.

Copal is the resin of a tropical tree, which has an almost identical appearance to an amber gem. You can find out if a stone is real or not by heating it. Gum gives off a pleasant aroma, while copal has a very pungent, medicinal smell. Also, copal has a lower density, and in order to distinguish it from the real one, it is necessary to draw a needle over it. On a natural gem, there will be a barely noticeable damage, but the copal will have a good scratch.

Kauri or dammar - the resin of these trees is also very similar to resin, but a fake of these resins is formed in a matter of days, unlike a natural mineral that is several thousand or even millions of years old.

How to distinguish real amber from a fake?

Many jewelry stores sell well-crafted glass instead of the original, and once you make a purchase, you can not always be sure of its quality. How to distinguish amber from a fake at home?

You can check whether you really slipped a glass pebble, which costs nothing, with a needle. If on copal, the scratch from the needle remains very noticeable, on amber it is slightly noticeable, then there will be no trace on the glass.

In order not to spoil an expensive (perhaps) jewelry, you should use a different, simple, homely, but very effective way to detect a fake. In a saline solution prepared from 300 ml of water / 50 g of salt, dip your stone or product. The real one will float on the surface, while the glass imitation will fall to the bottom of the glass.

Resin fakes can be not only from the resin of different trees and glass. There are also samples made of plastic. How to distinguish amber from plastic? Plastic, when pressed hard, will burst or break off into pieces, and amber will only crumble.

Technologies for the manufacture of artificial resin gems today can also offer another no less relevant option for imitation of a natural gem. Ambroid - pressed particles of amber, which is obtained by vacuum squeezing. If ambroide, in fact, has the same composition as an amber stone, then, in this case, how to distinguish pressed amber from the original gem?

Ambroid is no less beautiful, but, despite its incredible appearance, the shades with which the resin fake shimmers sharply replace one another, which is not found in natural stone, which has soft, calm transitions.

Of course, when making a purchase in a jewelry store, no one will allow you to scratch or drown the product in salt, so you can buy really high-quality and original jewelry only in trusted places.

Mineral Market online store is a place where customers are taken care of. You can buy exclusively natural precious and ornamental stones from us in a large assortment and at an affordable cost.!

Today's market assortment of amber jewelry has a large number of products. But how to check amber at home for authenticity? To know the exact answer, you need to remember a few basic signs.

Imitation and forgery of amber

Often for large fakes use the usual cheap resin. How to distinguish amber from such a fake?

• resin has a slight coniferous smell
• it is softer than real amber
• such a fake can be easily scratched, even with a fingernail
• artificial amber can be viewed under an ordinary magnifying glass, where wavy clusters will be visible, which are formed as a result of partial sintering.

It is very difficult to distinguish a real amber stone from copal. It is also resin. Its origin and place of birth are not yet known, but scientists are studying this issue. So, because of the color similarity, copal is often passed off as amber. Its cost, in any case, is much lower than that of a real gem. Products made from fake amber cannot compete with amber, so the price is sometimes even too high.

According to preliminary data, fake gems are of East African origin. Researchers found grains and plates of copal in the southeastern lands of Africa. Since the beginning of the 40s of the century before last, these stones began to be sold in large quantities. The pieces of resin are ball-shaped, and they look like river pebbles.

• copal is as hard as amber, but it melts much more easily
• when heated, copal gives off an unpleasant smell, similar to drugs. Amber, when heated, has a very pleasant aroma, somewhat similar to cloves.
• pieces of this mineral are covered with an opaque, weathered crust. Inside, they are quite clean and transparent, the same as that of amber, a beautiful yellow-brown color.

Only large and beautiful pieces of copal will fall into the hands of turners and carvers. The rest will be made into lacquer, drying oil or copal lacquer.

They also try to fake amber with stones such as kauri or dammar. Real amber has been formed for millions of years, it is saturated with the energy of the sun and the earth, endowed with healing properties. Artificial stones are also made from trees, but the procedure itself can take less than a day, respectively, and their value is much lower.

How to distinguish amber from a fake

You can often find in stores amber forgeries and out glass . How to distinguish amber from a fake in this case?

Sometimes you can find amber fakes from plastics. The density of amber is less than that of plastic, so it is easy to check the authenticity of such a stone. A natural gem will only crumble, and a plastic fake will break off with chips or uneven pieces.

In order to save money, natural stone is often counterfeited with pressed amber. (ambroid). It is obtained by vacuum pressing small pieces of resin with a hydraulic press. Visually and in terms of physical properties, the ambroid is almost identical to the natural one. But, if you carefully consider this type of stone, you can find the difference. Inside the ambroide, various clots, small bubbles will be visible. Its color is also uneven. Natural amber has smooth transitions from one color to another, while ambroide seems to consist of completely different pieces. If, nevertheless, having examined the stone, you doubt its authenticity, wipe it with essential oil. Ambroid will become sticky, while amber will remain the same.

Pressed amber

The case when it is necessary to detect a fake already in a product (for example, in silver) is more complicated. Since no one in the store will allow you to conduct "tests for fake amber." In this case, you need to buy amber jewelry only in trusted and reputable shops. Any store that sells goods made from real amber must have a quality certificate for products, where the stone deposits are indicated and the ecological purity of amber is confirmed, which is especially important, because this is an ornament that will be worn on the body.

From the above, we can conclude that there are many ways to distinguish amber from a fake, since there are many imitations on the market, so when buying natural jewelry, you need to be extremely careful and careful. Buy amber jewelry, only in reliable stores that have quality certificates.

When buying jewelry TM "Yantar Polesie", upon request, you will be provided with all the necessary quality certificates. We have been pleasing our customers for over 15 years, which is a confirmation of the high quality of our products!

Amber: learning to distinguish natural.

Autumn came, and many took out their amber jewelry from the caskets, warm and golden like the autumn sun. The organism instinctively reaches for cozy and warming amber.It is generally accepted that amber is a “fossilized fossil resin” supposedly formed from the prehistoric pine “Pinus succinifera” back in the Paleogene period, i.e. - 40-50 million years ago. However, it should be noted that this time of origin is obvious only for the amber of the Baltic region.The general age limits of European amber are much wider and range from 20-300 million years.

Amber is an indispensable stone healer and healer in the season of viral infections and colds. It is enough to throw a crumb of amber into a candle so that the room is filled with the air of the ancient forest, which is still dormant in the golden stone. And amber powder infused with vodka (at the rate of 1 teaspoon per half liter) is an excellent tool for preventing various diseases and increasing immunity. Connoisseurs advise taking such a tincture one at a time. spoon in the morning to avoid colds.

I got acquainted with amber many years ago, when, during a sore throat, someone advised me to put a wild piece of this stone in my pocket. Then a piece of amber could still be bought for 50 UAH. I bought amber, the sore throat has passed, but interest in this stone has developed only in recent years and just when the price for it crept up at a cosmic speed. Demand, as you know, gives rise to supply, and tormented by the thirst for easy money, everyone began to get their amber stocks from the bins and put them up at auctions at some fantastic prices. The real prices for amber are already not low and fluctuate around 8 UAH per gram, depending on the quality. However, on the Internet you can see products and pieces valued by greedy amber buyers at thousands and thousands of euros. Amber beads for 17 thousand euros became a sad symbolism of greed for me!!! High prices and high demand, as a rule, gives rise to a whole string of fakes and imitations. That is why the topic of the next meeting of the Odessa Collectors Club was amber and ways to check it.

By the way, the presence of insects or plant fragments in the sample is not an absolute confirmation that we have a real "adult" amber. In addition, synthetic imitations of amber with insects are increasingly common. However, the “martyrs” immured in them are too neatly arranged to be mistaken for genuine ones. Insects poured into transparent plastics are already dead - and in the poses in which they are immortalized, there are no signs of a struggle for their lives, everything is too beautiful.
One way to test is to test with salt water.Natural amber has a relatively low density (about 1.04-1.25 g/cm3), which corresponds approximately to the density of sea water. Natural amber tends to sink in fresh water, but floats in salt water. To carry out this method of analysis, it is necessary to prepare a saline solution at the rate of 90-100 grams of edible salt per 1 liter of water. On the eve of the meeting of the club, most of the members of the forum took up the sinking of their beads and jewelry in salt water. Every now and then there were posts: “Oh, it surfaced!!”, “And mine drowned!!”, “And my beads hung in the middle.” The most meticulous guessed to dissolve the beads and find that most of them drowned, and only a few beads surfaced. This made it possible to make an assumption that a mix of nature and imitation is possible in the product. Imitations of amber made of plastic and plastic, of course, sink.
Bead made by hand from plastic

This is a factory molded plastic.


A good example of an experience in salt water - the beads seem to float


Here they are, but disassembled into individual beads. It can be seen that most of the beads immediately drowned, which means that the matter is unclean.

The question immediately arose why the pieces of amber do not float on the surface of the Baltic Sea, but lie quietly at the bottom. But the fact is that the Baltic Sea is just not particularly salty and is not suitable for letting amber float freely. And that, indeed, it would look very funny.
In addition, natural amber does not like salt and can deteriorate and darken from diligent checks, so I did not want to drown my amber.
Personally, I liked a very simple way to check: hold the amber in your hands and gently rub it. Natural will emit a very pleasant smell of needles. Some set fire to amber for the same purpose, but friction produces the same result without much violence. Having rubbed our samples vigorously, we enjoyed the smell of amber, which immediately filled the space. It is clear that an imitation of plastic will not smell when rubbed, and when set on fire it will emit an intolerable stench. Please note that modern craftsmen make beads from plastic so similar to natural wild amber that it is simply impossible to distinguish from the photo. Be carefull!
You can also check the authenticity of an amber sample with a sharp penknife, but this will require slightly damaging the sample. The fact is that when you try to make a cut from a sample, natural amber and copal will crumble, while chips will come off a synthetic sample.

The above methods, unfortunately, do not allow distinguishing natural amber from pressed or melted amber (ambroid). And also from low-grade resin of tropical trees (copal) and rosin, which do not contain succinic acid. Therefore, in this case, other methods are needed. Experienced amber lovers shared that melted amber is always homogeneous, while in natural amber one can see microlayers, how the resin flowed down and hardened over time. Air bubbles in natural are always rounded, and in fused, they are flattened, as it were, due to the production process.After allget it by pressing peeled from the crust, small amber into a single, homogeneous mass. In this case, various dyes are added, and they are not always distributed evenly, as in these photos. There are clots of dye and they form "streaks" and intricate "drawings", but I must say that they also look repetitive and do not have unexpected and unpredictable patterns, as in natural amber.
Ambroid

A distinctive feature of copal is the presence of a large number of cracks on the surface. In addition, you can drop ether on it. The place where the drop hit will become sticky, and after the evaporation of the ether it will become cloudy. Natural amber will remain dry and will not stick.With the help of ether, melted amber is also checked, which will also become sticky.

Kopal

Sometimes dug in products is artificially aged so that there is an impression of an antique made of natural amber. In this case, you need to take a good look at the beads at the joints - the old product will always have scuffs from time to time and micro-chips.

In addition, amber can be tinted and heat-treated (smoked) to improve its color.Amber was boiled in honey to produce a reddish color, but this often resulted in a fine network of cracks. For clarification, amber is boiled in vegetable oil, and for coloring, organic dyes are added to the oil. By heat treatment of high grades of natural or pressed amber in a hot oven at a temperature of 220 ° C for 1.5-2 hours, followed by cooling under a sheet of asbestos on calcined sand, sparkling amber is obtained. Such amber containing small fan-shaped cracks, creating an additional beautiful play of stone.

Amber, surface-dyed in wine according to ancient technology

The most difficult to recognize are synthetic resins that mimic amber. It is almost impossible to visually distinguish a well-made fake from real amber. But even in this case, there are several ways to verify the authenticity of the stone. One of them is to place the stone under a stream of ultraviolet light: under its influence, natural natural amber will glow bluish, low-grade copal and ambroid - milky white, and synthetic imitations - any other color.
At the meeting, they also shared ways to care for amber. The best is polishing with a linen cloth and then gentle rubbing with oil (members of the club have experience with peach oil). Old darkened amber comes to life, begins to shine.
OK it's all over Now. It remains to be hoped that the excitement will subside, the merchants will earn money, and the Chinese will be satisfied with the Baltic amber, and the ordinary person will also be able to treat himself to this wonderful stone.

(With)Lakshmi by materAndalam meeting of the Odessa club of collectors of stones and minerals.
When copying a link to the blog is required!

The realities of the amber market are such that anyone who wants to buy jewelry made of precious fossilized oleoresin can afford it - regardless of the level of material wealth. However, being at the counter, you should remember: the cheaper amber and jewelry made from it, the more likely it is to buy a fake. Especially if the trade is going somewhere in the underpass.

The market is full of fake gems! Some artificial resins very realistically mimic the color and texture of natural amber. When buying jewelry made from fossil stone, an uninformed buyer often runs the risk of being, if not deceived, then deluded.

Some people mistakenly believe that in an antique shop the chance to buy fake amber is reduced to zero. This thought is wrong! Forgeries have existed before. Artificial amber was made from bakelite, casein, polyester and epoxy resins, mixed in different proportions. Other materials are also used, which have nothing to do with amber.

How to be in such a situation? How to distinguish true amber from a fake?

Knowing some tricks and tricks, you can easily determine the authenticity of amber. The main assistant in this case is the "culprit of the investigation" himself - amber with its unique and inimitable physical and chemical properties.

Here are a few methods that will help you distinguish a true gem from an imitation. Each of these methods is based on the specific properties of amber.

Appearance

Often fakes have clearly visible multiple inclusions of air bubbles, easily visible to the naked eye.

The densely packed so-called “glitters” in the thickness of the stone (other than round bubbles) can speak of both a fake (burnite material) and natural calcined amber.

Uniform - without color transitions and without any textures - the color of amber beads should alert the buyer. Craftsmen, however, harp fakes with a characteristic amber texture! Bakelite beads, for example, have a well-directed layered pattern, most often oriented along the thread hole.

Natural amber, especially one that has not been refined by heat treatment, looks richer than fake. Natural stone has an interesting color with chaotic transitions of shades from one to another. Its array is always endowed with a unique pattern, characteristic of amber of natural origin.

Weight

Amber is a gem of organic origin. Its density is low. Large beads made of natural amber (with a total weight of 70 - 80 grams) look very impressive. Fakes made of plastic and glass, having a high density, are modest in size - but weigh a lot.

Amber is warm to the touch, as it has a weak thermal conductivity - unlike glass, which has a much higher thermal conductivity.

Amber hardness test

The density of amber on the Mohs scale is 2.0 - 2.5. This means that it cannot be scratched with a fingernail. But copal - amber-like legume resin - on the contrary, is easily damaged by the same nail. Its hardness is only 1.5 Mohs. Glass is noticeably harder than amber: this difference is felt even with your fingers.

scratch test

With the tip of a knife or razor, scratch in an inconspicuous place. Real amber will crumble into small fragments that can be ground into powder. The plastic will leave elastic chips. The glass won't get scratched.

Swimming amber in salt water, or the so-called "water procedures"

Natural amber in most cases floats in salt water and sinks in fresh water. The density of amber, according to sources, is 1.05 - 1.09, maximum 1.3 g / cm³. The maximum density of saline water is 1.1972. Purely theoretically, it turns out that some samples of amber may still be denser than saline. In this case, they will drown. If there is a suspicion that the test sample is still natural, it is worth checking it in other ways.

Attention! The test with floating amber in salt water is not possible if the amber is set in metal or decorated with heavy decorative elements made of other materials.

How to prepare a solution? Dilute 8-10 teaspoons of table salt in a glass of water. If you need more water, make a supersaturated solution (with undissolved salt crystals at the bottom of the vessel).

Natural amber should float in salt water. Counterfeits will drown in such a solution.

This test will detect glass, bakelite, celluloid, imitation epoxy and burnite. But it won't help you identify copal and pressed amber.

After the experiment, the amber must be washed with fresh water and dried.

Electrostatic charging

If natural amber is intensively rubbed against wool or silk, it becomes negatively charged. This property can be tested by applying electrified amber to small pieces of paper. They should rush to the surface of amber or stick.

Some types of plastics have a similar property. But in amber it is more pronounced. The electrostatic method makes it possible to identify fakes in which the properties of electrization are completely absent. Copal (sold under the guise of “young” or “immature” amber) does not become electrified when rubbed.

Smell when rubbing and burning

Vigorous rubbing of amber against a fabric or palm until the temperature of the stone rises significantly helps to feel a faint resinous aroma, reminiscent of the smell of pine or turpentine. If you do the same with copal, it will soften and its surface will become sticky. Any synthetic will give itself out as a pungent chemical smell.

If you apply the red-hot tip of the needle to the surface of amber, white smoke with a characteristic rosin smell will appear. The aroma of rosin is strong enough to tell if you are holding plastic or real amber. However, different amber has differences in shades of smell. All varieties of amber are united by a pleasant, slightly sour resinous aroma. Synthetics in such an experiment will melt faster, giving a chemical, unpleasant smell.

Is it possible to set fire to amber? Here is what you should see if the stone is natural.

Amber begins to catch fire approximately three seconds after contact with fire. If you hold it on fire for a second or two longer, and then take it away from the flame, it will continue to burn on its own, quite intensively. Amber boils in the hearth of burning. Amber smoke is black - that is, when burned, amber smokes. As soon as you extinguish the burning amber, the remainder of the smoke emitted by the heated fragment will amaze you with the purity of its whiteness.

Solvent test

Amber is relatively resistant to alcohol and solvents - while almost all plastics are destroyed by contact with acetone. Acetone or nail polish remover can damage plastic imitations by discoloring them or creating a rough, matte surface at the point of contact.

By placing a drop of ether, solvent or 95% ethanol on the surface of amber, you will not see any reactions. Real amber will not disintegrate and will not become sticky.

Otherwise pressed amber will behave. If you rub pressed amber with a cloth soaked in ether, the surface of the stone will become sticky. Some plastics do not react with alcohol but dissolve in acetone. Glass fakes do not react with any of these reagents. But copal will be hopelessly spoiled by any reagent!

On a note! Do not get carried away with chemical experiments with the front side of amber jewelry. With prolonged exposure to reagents, stains may remain on natural amber. Usually 3-5 seconds are enough to recognize a fake.

light, luminescence

In the light of an ultraviolet lamp, amber luminesces to one degree or another. In transparent samples, a bluish glow of varying intensity is visible. With a decrease in the transparency of the stone, the effect of the glow weakens. Smoky translucent amber luminesces in pale blue.

Under the action of ultraviolet, the structure of undulating amber deposits, banding, and transitions due to various degrees of turbidity are clearly visible. "Cloud" and "bone" amber glow milky white with a faint bluish tint. Raw amber with the so-called sugar crust luminesces in brown tones.

Synthetic resin based on Bakelite is inert in ultraviolet rays, casein imitations glow yellow.

Finally.

When buying amber jewelry in a store, you will not always have the opportunity to do the above manipulations. The seller simply will not allow you to spoil the jewelry with a red-hot needle or a sharp metal edge.

However, no one will interfere with inspecting the amber jewelry! If the seller has a counterfeit bill detector, ask him to check the amber for luminescence. A respectable merchant should not refuse you.

Common sense and a bit of theory will help to understand the situation. The chance of buying a fake will be reduced to a minimum.

Pressed amber (ambroid)

Considered a fake. They learned to make it at the end of the 19th century. Small amber chips are pressed under a hydraulic press without oxygen at a temperature of 200-250 ° C. Externally, pressed amber is very similar to a natural mineral, but it can still be distinguished. Imitation will give uneven coloring. Parts of the ambroide can differ sharply from each other in color, while the color transitions are very sharp and have a clear geometric shape. The contrasting pieces are very reminiscent of a traditional patchwork quilt. A particularly characteristic feature is a sharp transition from the matte part to the transparent one. Whereas the color of natural amber changes very smoothly, without any lines and color boundaries.

finesell.ru