Tumbling Amber

[fossilguy]

I was wondering if anyone has any experience in tumble polishing amber?
I would appreciate any information as my experience is mostly with harder stones and fossils.

Thanks,
Fossil Guy.

Dum Vivamus Pote Vivamus
(while we live let us live)

[rollingstone]

I think it only has a mohs hardness of 3 or less and is too soft to get a polish on it in a tumbler.
-Don

[Cher]

I think that amber would be too soft to put in a tumbler.

[Sabre52]

I think if I tried this at all, I'd preshape every stone and just use the very fine grind, prepolish, and final polish( in a vibe only) with a ton of plastic beads. The mohs hardness is only 2 -21/2 and it's brittle by nature. That sounds like a recipe for disaster in a rotary unit. Vibes are very gentle though and if you watch it closely it just might be just fine. I have a small bag full of amber and would love to see the results if you try it....mel

[Duckbean]

don't think I would try it. Have polished several pieces by hand with good results.

[Jurrasic Jonje]

I would try mel's idea. Use a 500 grit then a 1000 grit and finally a polish. I would only use a vibe and yes pellets would be a must have I think.

[snowdog]

some of the bigger vibs have the counter weights where you can adjust them ( for more/less viberation ) -- I would slow them down and start with maybe 800 grit or even 1000 --- if the 1000 didn't do what you wanted in a days time or less then maybe back up to 800 or even 600 but better check them every 2 hours as they will disappear ( ) in a hurry ;D -- once they have a fine matte finish ( semi shine) then go to polish

[stefan]

Hand polishing would work better- actually would probably give excellent results

[Original Admin]

I tried this once - 80 first - after two days I checked and the barrel was empty.
Ouch - it was given to me by a friend aswell.

[oldgrouchy]

Better off to use regular sand paper to shape and tooth polish to shine it up! Way too soft to tumble. I have seen some recently that had been melted and recast over insects, scorpions and spiders!

[ladyt]

I was wondering, can you cab them or shape them on a flat lap? I have some but didn't know what to do with them. Also I think I have some citrine. Can I use the flat lap for that too?

Thanks, Tonja

[free4rms]

I have never tried tumbling amber or using a vibratory tumbler, but I have polished many pieces on my worn silicon carbide wheels and diamond Nova wheels. I have even ground and polished copal on my Nova wheels, and copal is softer than amber. If you have a set up with Nova wheels, I would try out a scrap piece that doesn't look promising first, and then use maybe a 600 grit Nova that has had some wear on it. Just touch the amber to the wheel softly and see what you think. I have achieved a very good polish on copal by going through to a worn 14,000 Nova. You can get the same results using somewhat worn sic belts. You don' t have as much control over the shape of the amber (compared to hand polishing) and you might lose a little more than you want to, but if you have a piece that you just want to experiment with, you might give it a try.

[MrCoffee]

The trick to amber is to never tumble it. The stuff just won't hold up. You will need a cabbing unit, and you'll need to start with 600 grit silicon carbide. Use copious amounts of water! Otherwise, the amber will overheat and get gummy, just like plastic. After you've shaped it with the 600, stop using the machine and put on a good pair of jeans. Then, rub that sucker on your lap, over the denim. Pretend like it's a worry stone, make it a habit like some folks like to twist their hair. Eventually, you'll have a nicely polished piece of amber. OK, say you got a pile of them things. Well, you better have a lot of patience!

MrCoffee

[stefan]

Polish sprinkled onto damp leather should also polish this stuff- oh and it melts at a very low temp

[krazydiamond]

i've never tried to either tumble polsih this or cab it, but i've seen many a fine piece with a super shine...so there has to be a technique.

KD

[larrywyland3]

Hi

I was shown two ways to work with amber.

The first you would take a rough piece and decide which side is the most gnarly interesting. This is the side you would leave alone and would be the "back side" The side opposite you would then cab as you would any soft material. As others posted, starting with the soft worn Nova 600 and make sure your geyser is shooting out as much water as possible. The amber melts on the wheel pretty quick if there is not enough water. You work the one side much like a cab. You are trying to make a window into the back side. The higher the dome you can make seems to help the peering into the back side. I have not done much amber, but from what I have done it seems no two pieces come out the same in terms of how much you cab the one side and how high the dome is, you kind make decisions as you go with each one.

The other way I was shown was to keep all the natural gnarliness. You take out a really gnarly piece and use a green scotch bright cleany thing and work away all the crud and smooth it in the sense of getting the uneven surfaces ready for a polishing. Next you put some polish on a finger tip or thumb and work it. I have heard of people using nose oil to help the shine. , but not to sure how acceptable this is. You don't get the same high gloss polish as with the Nova, but it has a great look all its own.

[4936musse]

Well think of this the amber has been in the sea fohttp://www.amberway.co.uk/work_with_amber_20.html millions of years, and every time there was a big storm, the amber was traveling big distances.
My point is there is a reason the amber has a "skin" its been made of the many times the amber has been bumping into stones and sand over a long piriod of time. So why can you not put the amber into a tombler with some wather and sand, to pollish it. Its the same that happen in the nature right. But l will let you knosmall wooden cubes and special natural paste is used. later, l have 5 kilo of raw amber from the Baltic sea. I have just build a tumbler, and l am now looking for some pumice powder. And some polishing paste, with small wood cubes to make the final shine.
The drum has to be made of wood or plastic with holes, so air can come into the drum.
I do not know where to find the pumice powder and the special paste.

[4936musse]

Just one information, real amber do get like rubber and melt when heated up. Thats only kobolt young amber.
I pollish my amber with grit 80 on my drilling machine, then l go to wather pollish with grid 300 1200 and 2000.
And finnish on my buffer to make it look nice.

[orrum]

I know a guy that sands by hand to shape and polishes with diamond on his blue jeans while watching his booth in Q. It works.

[4936musse]

Yes you can do the pollishing by hand, but its more easy to take the "skind" of with a machine, l just use my drilling machine with a pad of sandpapier. And the the rest with wet sandpapier, and yes you can make the amber nice just rubbing them on your jeans, but a buffer is more easy.