There are many colors of amber, and different colors of amber have different representative meanings, such as "Jin Po gathers wealth, blood amber exorcises evil spirits, amber and beeswax are medicinal amber", and the color of amber is deep and elegant, simple and implicit. Therefore, it has a reputation as a "low-key aristocrat" in the West.
Traditionally, transparent amber is called amber, and opaque amber is called secret wax. From a professional point of view, the yellow one is called Jin Po; The red system is called blood amber; The blue one is called Lanpo; The green system is called the green pearl. But it is black under normal light, and Zhang Po is red under strong light. Ancient books say that amber is "the length of many beads, the saint of amber". There are also inclusions containing insects, leaves and so on, which are extremely precious insects! The division of dense wax mainly includes amber that turns red and orange translucent due to geothermal influence, which is called golden twist; There are also rare ivory whites, baby faces and so on. Beeswax is amber, but its color is different from translucent amber. Because of the high content and opacity of succinic acid, merchants call it beeswax, so the real beeswax has the same function as amber. When the beeswax is worn for a long time, it will gradually become transparent amber due to the decrease of human body temperature.
1. Experiment: Natural amber is very light. If you put it (without any inlay) in water, it will sink to the bottom. But you don't have to worry. When you add dissolved brine to it, when the salt concentration is greater than 1 4 (1 salt, 4 parts water), the real amber will float slowly, but the fake amber will not.
2. Sound: Amber chains or beads without inlay will make a very soft and slightly dull sound when gently rubbed in your hands. If the sound of plastic or resin is crisp.
3, fragrance: amber has only a faint smell when rubbing, or it can't be smelled at all. Amber that produces fragrance when rubbed is called "Xiangpo". Generally, amber only emits a loose fragrance when it burns.
4, visual inspection: this is a trick to identify true and false amber; As long as you are familiar with it-you will naturally have this ability. The texture, color depth, transparency and refractive index of true amber will change with the observation angle and illumination. This feeling can't be found in any other substance. Just as we distinguish between true and false people, for example, superb artists can create lifelike wax figures, and "confusing the false with the true" is just talk, and even the best wax figures can't escape our eyes. As long as you have your favorite amber with more than three colors and more than three months, no one can fool you. Amber is transparent but very moist, unlike glass, crystal and diamond. Fake amber is either transparent or opaque, and the color is fake when it dies. Artificial fake amber? Quot "amber flowers" are dazzling, and you will feel lifeless cold light. "Exposure to amber for a long time can tell the truth by intuition. Just like identifying a true person from a false one-no matter how good the wax figure is, I believe you will easily recognize that it is not a real person.
5. Ether experiment: Although the appearance of regenerated amber pressed with amber powder at high temperature is very close to that of natural amber, if it is coated with a little ether, it will feel sticky and dissolved in a few minutes. However, I have checked some of my amber fragments and put them in ether for about 20-30 minutes. They are still safe.
6. Acidity: Real pure natural amber is quite resistant to ordinary daily acid and alkali, because many amber produced in the Baltic Sea are salvaged from the sea and have been in the sea for hundreds of millions of years. If it weren't for acid and alkali resistance, I'm afraid I wouldn't see it long ago.
7. Hardness test: When you gently stab the back of amber with a needle at an angle of 20-30 degrees (where you don't think it will hurt amber), there will be a slight sense of violence and a very fine powder residue. If it is plastic or other substances with different hardness, it will either stick, feel sticky or even stick inside.
However, the above experiments are either not done or done less, so as not to cause harm to amber.