and which ones are just quackery? Baltic amber necklaces may seem silly, but actually the way they work is pretty simple. Amber resin contains succinic acid, a natural analgesic that is released when warm skin touches the beads. Unfortunately baltic amber is pretty easy to counterfeit, so if you’ve found your child's amber necklace doesn’t work it may not be authentic. If your necklace is cool to
the touch like glass, it’s counterfeit. However, if it’s warm or neutral it could be plastic, a young tree resin called copal, or another material. If you’re not sure the necklace you bought is authentic, try one of these simple tests:
ACETONE TEST put some drops of acetone or some type of agent like this, the real amber will not be affected after the acetone evaporates but the fake will be sticky, leave finger prints in the fake. This is also a good test to spot copal and some synthic resins or plastics. You can even drop muratic acid on amber and it wont hurt it. SCRATCH TEST amber is soft unlike a diamond so if you take something and try to scratch it, amber will scratch, harder fakes won’t scratch. HOT NEEDLE heat a needle and push it into the amber, in real amber it will just slightly go in and you will smell a very old punged tree smell, but strong odor. If the needle goes in easy and you smell a fresh smell like pine, its copal and if you small a nasty plastic type smell it’s some kind of fake. You also can burn a piece of amber and test the smell. SALT WATER is a good test. Fill a medium size pot with water, put about seven teaspoons of salt in it and stir well, stir again in thirty minutes or so as to mix well. when you drop amber in salt water it will float at the top, most fakes will sink. RUB AND SMELL You can also rub the specimen vigorously on a soft white cloth, true amber may start to small a little of resinous fragrance where copal begin to soften and the surface become sticky. UV LIGHT is a very good testing method, if you shine the light on the amber the real one will glow pale and the fake will not glow. This is a good sure bet but there are some things to consider, not all ambers will glow a lot, certain colors like red often will not glow but if you move the light around the entire piece you will find a glow spot.
