# Can I Make Amber At Home?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-i-make-amber-at-home/278939>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [December 9, 2004, 4:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-i-make-amber-at-home/278939 "2004-12-09T16:34:46Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 7\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![ralph124c](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/8797f3/32.png) [@ralph124c](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ralph124c)\
**Post date:** [December 9, 2004, 4:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-i-make-amber-at-home/278939/1 "2004-12-09T16:34:46Z")

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I like the look of amber…it is a nice honey-yellow color. Anyway, amber is fossilized pine tree resin/rosin…so could it be made artificially? Suppose you took fresh pine tree sap, and threw in a few insects (ala Jurassic Park), then put it in a pressure chamber (at 4-5 atmosphere to simulate being buried in the earth. Also, you could cook it at hgh tmperature 9to speed up the chemical processes involved. With this scheme, could I make good quality amber ina few months time?

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**Author:** ![spingears](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ebca7d/32.png) [@spingears](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/spingears)\
**Post date:** [December 9, 2004, 5:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-i-make-amber-at-home/278939/2 "2004-12-09T17:51:45Z")

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> [@ralph124c](#):
>
> I like the look of amber…it is a nice honey-yellow color. Anyway, amber is fossilized pine tree resin/rosin…so could it be made artificially? Suppose you took fresh pine tree sap, and threw in a few insects (ala Jurassic Park), then put it in a pressure chamber (at 4-5 atmosphere to simulate being buried in the earth. Also, you could cook it at hgh tmperature 9to speed up the chemical processes involved. With this scheme, could I make good quality amber ina few months time?

WAG Try it, you’ll like it!

My opinion is that it takes a very very long time for the solvents in the resin to migrate from the center out and be dissapated and convert the resin to amber.

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**Author:** ![Q.E.D](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/51bf81/32.png) [@Q.E.D](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.E.D)\
**Post date:** [December 9, 2004, 6:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-i-make-amber-at-home/278939/3 "2004-12-09T18:00:52Z")

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“Real” synthetic amber is made by compressing crumbs and chips of real amber (resulting from the shaping process while making jewelry and similar articles) under high heat and pressure. AFAIK, there’s no process for producing synthetic amber (at least not economically) from raw tree sap, but the look can be cheaply simulated with various epoxies and casting resins.

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**Author:** ![Tomcat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Tomcat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tomcat)\
**Post date:** [December 9, 2004, 8:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-i-make-amber-at-home/278939/4 "2004-12-09T20:14:50Z")

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How do they make the resin for bows (as in violin)? Tons of that floating around…

-Tcat

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**Author:** ![Q.E.D](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/51bf81/32.png) [@Q.E.D](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.E.D)\
**Post date:** [December 9, 2004, 8:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-i-make-amber-at-home/278939/5 "2004-12-09T20:24:37Z")

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> [@Tomcat](#):
>
> How do they make the resin for bows (as in violin)? Tons of that floating around…

It’s purified pine sap, called colophony, that is baked to drive off moisture. Different baking times yield harder or softer rosins for different instrument bows. Cello rosin is harder than violin rosin.

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**Author:** ![Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/left_hand_of_dorkness/32/7156_2.png) [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness)\
**Post date:** [December 9, 2004, 9:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-i-make-amber-at-home/278939/6 "2004-12-09T21:00:57Z")

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> [@ralph124c](#):
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> How acn I make Amber at home?

Try getting her drunk.  
Daniel

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**Author:** ![Washoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/ecae2f/32.png) [@Washoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Washoe)\
**Post date:** [December 9, 2004, 9:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-i-make-amber-at-home/278939/7 "2004-12-09T21:16:39Z")

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> [@Left Hand of Dorkness](#):
>
> Try getting her drunk.

Oh, I doubt Rob Mariano has to resort to getting her drunk. 😃