Amber and succinic acid

[Albalida]

Also called butanedioic acid; historically known as spirit of amber because it was originally obtained by pulverising and distilling amber using a sand bath. In the past it was chiefly used externally for rheumatic aches and pains.

The above info is from Wikipedia, which I searched because of this one site that does the strange thing of making amber jewelry for teething infants.

http://www.amberartisans.com/


That site has a fairly thorough how-to-tell-fake-from-real amber guides. It started to get me kind of suspicious about how physically durable or not amber really is. If the stones release their bubbles when heated, they can be irreparably scratched by metals, or burned for the tree resin scent, and physical compounds in the stone can rub off on infants' gums... well, I guess I can't keep treating my amber like I do my (slightly chipped) quartzes, then!

[StoneWhisper]

I agree.. its getting so hard to tell any stone/crystal today. Cheaply made copies are starting to run rampant and yes it is hard to tell what is and has been real or here for a long time.. and the pin test doesn't alwasy work well.. Thou we dont have any amber within our own home or on our person.. and I guess the reasoning is its so hard to really know that you have what your bought and that it is right and not some knock off. One thing about amber that I'm sure of.. is that it can be clean in a rock tumbler using soapy water and we've experminted with backing soda and viniger which works well also.