Amber is one of the oldest precious stones used by man. Due to its low hardness, this stone is excellently polished and polished. Amber jewelry has been made for hundreds of thousands of years and will hardly ever cease to be fashionable and relevant. Recently, however, more and more often in products made from this stone come across its fakes and high-quality imitations. There are several ways to recognize real amber.
Necessary
- - 250 ml of water
- - 10 teaspoons of table salt
Instructions
Step 1
Make a saline solution. To do this, take 250 ml of water and add 10 teaspoons of table salt to it. Dip amber into the solution, if it floats to the surface, it means that you have not purchased a fake. Modern resins and plastics differ from amber in a higher density, so they will sink to the bottom.
Step 2
Try to determine the authenticity of amber using the heating method. Take a small sample of the product. Place in a sealed tube and heat. If you get a strong synthetic smell, be aware that you have purchased plastic products. A strong scent will indicate that the item is made from resin. Real amber gives off the smell of pine needles.
Step 3
Sometimes copal can be purchased when purchasing amber products. Copal is a young amber, the age of which is not millions, but hundreds of thousands of years. Copal can also be made from the resin of modern trees. To distinguish a copal from real amber, drop a drop of alcohol on the item and put your finger on it. If the surface is dry - amber, sticky - dug. In the absence of alcohol, use acetone: drip onto the product and leave for 3 seconds. After that, wipe off the drop, if there is a stain, dig it.
Step 4
Use the statistical electricity method. It is most common when choosing amber items. Rub the amber, it should acquire negatively charged properties and begin to attract various small pieces, for example, paper. True, many plastics have the same properties, but if the product is not "electrified", then this is an obvious fake.
Step 5
Pay attention to inclusions (inclusions) in amber products in the form of plants or insects. In genuine amber, the wings of flies are open, and in fakes, flies caught on sticky tape are already poured dead with resin or plastic. Groups of insects look funny in the product, which simply could not get into it, either by their habitat, or by age.
