how do I melt amber resin dust

[earth_ange...@hotmail.com]

Hello.
I am a newbie at this I have quite alot amber resin dust from
sculpting peices of amber ,I would like to know if possible?, without
too much terminology or science . (grin) how would i ? melt down
Amber resin residue dust to make one solid Baltic /Columbian Amber
chunk without a lab, certificate or degree :) ?.. could I on a
stove top ??.please if you have information or leads to where i might
be able to find this out would you pass it on if possible?, I would be
very esstatic!. I really can't see "tossing it out?.." I'm sure there
may be other options for this dust?, I'm not aware of what though?..
thank you so much Earth .

[ted frater]

Ive always wanted to work amber, never got round to it.
BUT heres what id do if I was in your shoes.
Id set up a small flame under a piece of metal, preferably stainless
steel and warm the metal slowly with some of the dust on the top. when
it melts? drip some water near it. If it boils or spits then the temp is
above 100 deg C. if it doesnt then youll know its less. Then think about
using some baking ali foil made up onto a small crucible to repeat with
more of your amber powder.
Let us know the results of your trials.
If you over heat it will burn of course..

[Andrew Werby]

<earth_ange...@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:b6e8239m0c7aujea1...@4ax.com...

[Baltic/Colombian? While there is amber that comes from the Baltic region,
there is none that comes from Colombia. Material sold as Colombian "amber"
is actually copal, a modern tree resin. They are quite different in their
working properties and value.

Chunks of amber used to be pressed in a heated mold and reconstituted into
"amberoid", which was used for pipe mouthpieces, cigarette holders, etc in
the 19th and early 20th centuries. I doubt this would work with amber dust,
though. It's supposed to be possible to use amber dust to make varnish, but
that's a difficult and dangerous project involving hot ether (I've only
heard about this - don't try it at home, kids).

Copal dust, on the other hand, dissolves readily in denatured alcohol, and
makes a varnish a lot like shellac. (One of the tests for copal involves
wetting the surface with alcohol; it gets sticky, while amber is
unaffected.) It might be possible to reconstitute it into chunks by heating
it, but I haven't tried that either. However, it was traditionally used as
incense, by throwing some on a charcoal ember. Your dust should work fine in
this application.]

Andrew Werby
www.unitedartworks.com

[Frosty]

On Tue, 17 Apr 2007 03:03:09 GMT in rec.crafts.jewelry
earth_ange...@hotmail.com, intended to write something
intelligible, but instead wrote :

You could snort it.