Melting Amber

[Andretje]

Hello,

i know it is not possible to melt amber just like that.

I know amber is pressed and i think you can melt amber in an autoclave or maybe by mixing it.

i Would like to make my own amber by melting little pieces of baltic amber so i can make art from it.

Can anyone help me how to do this

Andre

[fossilized6s]

Id imagine working with Copal would prove to be a lot easier for your project.

Just my $0.02

[Raggedy Man]

Amber becomes soft at 150 degrees celsius and melts around 300 degrees celsius. However, rather than "melting" its actually decomposing. Charlie is completely correct. Copal is much easier to work with.

[painshill]

Since 1881 (pioneered by the Austria-Hungary company Stantien & Becker) small chips of Baltic amber that were too small for use in the jewellery trade have been softened (but not melted) to enable them to be pressed into larger blocks known as “ambroid” (sometimes “amberoid”). Those blocks were then carved to produce beads, buttons, brooches, hair ornaments and other decorative items.

There were three main methods in use, named after their inventors. The Spiller method required amber fragments to be placed in a cubical steel mould with a tightly fitting top plate. The entire assembly was heated gradually by immersion in hot liquid paraffin or glycerine and then the top plate subjected to a pressure of 400 - 500 kg/cm2 to press the fragments into a mass that solidified into a block.

The Trebitsch method used a cylindrical mould having two sections divided by a barrier wall with small holes in it. The mould was heated to soften amber fragments placed in the lower chamber and it was then squeezed through the holes into the upper chamber via a piston to become a homogeneous mass. Much higher pressure was needed for this – above 3,000 kg/cm2 but it produced a better result.

Ernst Simon then patented a process in 1903 for directly pressing heat-softened amber into detailed moulds to reduce the wastage arising from carving. More intricate items (such as cigarette holders and pipe mouthpieces) could then be cheaply mass-produced - only requiring drilling and polishing to finish them.

Modified and improved versions of these processes are still used today, generally using superheated steam in an autoclave as the heat source. The best results are achieved with temperatures controlled at above 204 degrees Celcius and below 220 degrees, with pressures between 2,400 and 2,700 kg/cm2. It is essential that the amber is thoroughly cleaned of debris and weathering crust and that the process is performed in an airtight oxygen-free environment (vacuum or inert gas) to prevent oxidative darkening and subsequent deterioration.

As already stated, amber doesn’t melt in the true sense of the word, but it does undergo a transition above temperatures between about 250 - 350 degrees (depending on age, origin and composition), at which point it is actually decomposing.

Essentially, the same processes are used today for much of the so-called “amber” jewellery sold cheaply in gift shops (although it is contrary to International Amber Association rules to call it amber), often with the added refinement of dyes to improve or change the colour.

There are other methods in modern use, developed in the late 1950’s. Granulated amber (mechanically crushed) is heated to temperatures between 150 -200 degrees Celcius and pressed between 200 – 300 kg/cm2 without the benefit of vacuum. That method yields a dark red colour, with low clarity and an obvious “crazed” appearance of a non-uniform nature. The colour and clarity can be improved somewhat by moving closer to 140 degrees (the lower limit of softening), but you then need more pressure. Given enough pressure you can even force small amber granules to bond together at temperatures below the softening point.

There is a modification of the above, whereby single but irregular pieces of heat-softened natural amber are simply squashed into moulds to forcefully make them a more useful shape. The colour and clarity can be retained and it may not even be noticeable that the piece has been manipulated.

With the possible exception of that last method, these are not techniques that you could readily use at home.

[Raheel Bawani]

The above posts were fruitful. Any specific binder for amber briquetting?  or can you suggest any article about it?

 

Thanks