Welcome to Insects-In-Amber.com
All you need to know about searching and polishing Amber
To clean unsearched Amber or copal you will need the following:- an empty ice cream tub or similar size container,
various grades of wet and dry from P320 to P2500, a piece of plastic or wooden board smaller than you wet and dry
and some toothpaste.Take the ice cream tub or other container, half fill it with water and empty your amber or copal into it. This will eliminate dust and make the amber and copal more translucent. The picture on the right shows a group of ants which can be easily seen due to the use of the water. Some insects are a lot smaller however, so do not worry if you cannot see anything in your piece as although it could be that there appears to be nothing there, you may simply have to start to polish one side to see further into it. This is especially true on some of the darker pieces. Use a magnifying glass or loupe to help you search for smaller insects. Depending on the distance the insects are from the surface, you can determine which grade of wet and dry you will need to start with. If it is 3mm away, start with the 320 grade. If it is 2mm, start with the 600 grade. If the insects are less than 1mm you will have to lightly use the 1000 grade and then follow with the 2500 grade. Any mor than 3mm away and you may need to cut or file the amber, please see the section on cutting & shaping.
Take your rubbing board and lay your choice of wet and dry over it with equal amounts of excess over each end. Bend the excess wet and dry to tuck underneath as per picture. Place your board on some old newspaper as we want to keep the copal wet at all times
