polishing

[wingina]

hello alex /long time back do have a simple question for u though/ when i was polishing some of the amber from north carolina its conac colour with swirls of various tans and browns sometimes greys always though in layered lines / at first this was the top coat i will call it. now i have left it alone except on certain pieces i rally want to polish . but the question is this / it seemed like the color ws a later deposit coating the amber sometimes it was all the way through though but when i was first polishing and understanding it the amber would get too hot / i am using different buffing wheels and sometimes polishing agents as well / just to experiment of course i would not hold it to the wheel continus but there was always a certain point when u got that window just right and then the colored layer would want all of a sudden swoosh and run over .so having to start over again/ with stones we have a drip from the water or an oil base mixture / what is the trick on this / different beginning wheels to cut / george

[Alec Corday]

Wow, North Carolina amber? That's new to me. i wasn't aware of any finds over there. Then again, it shouldn't surprise me to find amber in those regions. Some of the oldest amber ever found is from New Jersey, I believe. I have to admit I have on idea what the issue is with that amber. I have never seen the pieces nor heard of them, so I may be wrong in my assessment, but are you certain it is amber you have? The reaction you get sounds to me like Copal. Amber is usually a lot more resistant and willing in taking a nice sheen, especially Dominican Amber. Copal on the other hand acts a lot more like plastic (or resin for that matter).

[wingina]

no its amber /comes from the phosphate mines some 2oo feet deep and out of that comes the jiant sharks teeth the megaldon/s /all types of shells /all types of fossils from all types of marine life and mamals/ birds bisen/mamonth etc / its a treasure trove of fossile hunting /whale bone vertbrae etc/ this u can look up . / later will send u some links to see what it is all about / smithsonian musuem gets a lot from here/ clubs go in and search through spoil piles that have not been touched/ amber was not really something that everyone was looking for /most are looking for the sharks teeth and they come in diferent colors as well / stone hard/ bigger than your hand some of them /i am sure u have seen this material at shows or on line/ anyway some years ago in searching for a certain fellow selling the teeth in the a town where they have a festivial there to celebrate all of this i ran into an old timer and his young friend who had been digging and could go in to the areas/ one he had permission had worked there so long etc/ anyway they had the amber and had polished it and had drilled some small holes from the bottom so one could put a little light up there my first pieces were as big or bigger than my fist and were conac deep in color/ hard yes / later the old man died and so did the connection until i made a new one / and now have different colors / oh yes it polishes like said / just that with the ones with the colors its almost like there are different layers of colors and if u get it too hot then u run the chance of moving some where u did not polish right over on top of what u did / i dont know how to explain it /really /lol but will take some pics for u and send later/like i said colors are butterscotch and different shades at that but not like th russian i mean like toffee/ greys with swirls /the conac/s have hints of red by the way and then the regular conac colors / it is like the amber formed with different drippings of what ever resins and how they got colored/ its not lke columbian at all/ more like the polish i would think if i had to compare/ anyway its wild stuff/ and once u take the crust and the crude off u are woking it just like anyother just that the colored stuff is different / I am going to atempt to get it out tomorrow and shoot it /

well actually a lot of people do not know that carolina has amber/ as i mentioned in one other blog / one net story is about an old man who is getting parkinson and comes by my shop on the coast /carolina/ i am sellng the jiant sharks teeth and have a sign large to that effect so he stops in with his daughter invites me down and i go down and buy some /he was closing shop and his collection -smithsonian got some /friends etc . while i was there he told me about a story where the core of engineers diverted a stream andwhen the old stream dried up from that the bottom of it was an amber bottom/ of course i wrote all that down and put it somewhere otherwise i would be there now/lol the situtation is that the coast and inland was all inland seas at one time . and at some points depending on the way that the land runs and the erosion of the shelfs /one catches exposure of all the fossils/ never heard of the amber being found on the surface pits though or where the exposure was only deeper when they are mining the big open pits/ none of these mines though are just open to go into and just collect/ have to join a club etc to go in at certain times etc etc/ used to go on the edge of the mines though and find things like the teeth and red stone fossil clams/ like 3 inches large / much fun/ later

[Alec Corday]

Well, I don't know the location, but if the surrounding strata contains Meg teeth, then it can't be older than 18 million years or less, and that is way too young for Amber. Amber is a minimum of 20 to 25 and up, everything below is considered Copal. You may want to check on the age of the site and what scientist are saying about it. The age of amber is most commonly judged based on the strata it is found in (although even that is in debate http://ambarazul.com/wordpress/2005/11/05/the-redisposition-of-the-redepostion/), so figure out what the age is and you'll know what kind of amber/copal it is. Based on that you may know how to polish it properly.

Greetings and Salutations!