Amber – one of the most dear mankind of stones, known still from time immemorial. The fashion for it still does not pass. Quite often imitations and fakes of amber therefore it is recommended to buy jewelry from this stone from the checked and reliable suppliers meet. And also there will be useful an ability to independently define the real amber.
Instruction
1. Imitations of amber are usually produced from dug, plastic, celluloid, glass and synthetic pitches. Often place the internal inclusion imitating a fossil insect or a leaf of an ancient fern that has to increase stone cost in a fake.
2. To reveal a fake, pay attention whether the product crumbles (for example, in the place of a hole of an amber bead). Counterfeit amber easily crumbles and breaks away. If to heat product crumbs from artificial material on a knife tip, they will exude an unpleasant characteristic smell.
3. One more way to verify authenticity of amber is to place it in a strong brine where it has to float while in clear water it sinks.
4. The professional possessing the special equipment will reveal imitation even more simply – natural amber in ultraviolet rays radiates blue light.
5. Young or "immature" amber is called kopaly. Dug age usually makes not millions of years, but some tens of thousands. Modern technologies allow to receive dug, identical to a natural stone, from pitch of trees.
6. To distinguish dug from full-fledged amber, in the imperceptible place of a product put a drop of alcohol and apply a finger to this place. The sticky surface will give out dug. Dug the second way of identification – apply on couple of seconds an acetone drop on the surface of the checked material. If in this place the spot appeared, we deal with kopaly. This method should be used accurately as at long influence of acetone even on natural amber there can be a spot (it cleans up polishing).
7. Keep in mind that fakes from plastic should be distinguished from the natural pressed amber. Only a small part of the got natural stone has the large sizes; a considerable part represents the small pieces of a stone subjected to processing by pressing. By close examination such amber will seem made of small pieces, but it is after all natural material with natural properties inherent in it.