At the same time, the rising prices of amber and beeswax in recent years have made the market more chaotic. Synthetic amber beeswax is everywhere, and the difference between amber beeswax and natural beeswax is difficult to distinguish even by experienced appraisers. Among them, the most common counterfeiting method is to use Barker resin as amber and beeswax.
Barker resin is actually a kind of natural resin fossil, which is a hard resin formed after fresh resin dries up. After the hard resin is buried underground, it forms a semi-petrochemical resin through geological action, which is Barker resin. Amber and beeswax are hard resin fossils buried underground for thousands or even hundreds of millions of years.
Therefore, Barker resin is produced in large quantities at low prices, and many of them are made into "old wax" for sale. According to insiders, for Barker resin, the transparency of Barker resin is lower than that of amber, and the texture is poor. No matter how optimized, amber and Barker resin are still difficult to be confused. In addition, Barker resin is also the most used raw material, whether for purification, color improvement or aging.
In addition, the regenerated beeswax, which is made of beeswax powder and broken beeswax by hot melting and solidification, is also a common variety with poor quality. In the market, some people will call the secondary synthetic regenerated beeswax, noble beeswax and snow mountain beeswax secondary beeswax, but they are different from modified natural beeswax, so we must carefully identify them.
The best way to identify natural beeswax is to go to a formal jewelry and jade appraisal institution and issue a formal appraisal certificate. If the conditions do not allow, you have to take the method of naked eye identification, then you can look at the color first.
The colors of beeswax are red, blue, black, purple and green. In addition to the common yellow, the color of real beeswax looks very comfortable and the color transition is very natural, while the color of fake beeswax is often different shades. Secondly, when natural beeswax is rubbed, heated or burned, it will give off a pleasant resin smell, while synthetic beeswax will have a pungent plastic smell. When beeswax is put into 1/4 saturated salt water, natural beeswax will float and artificial beeswax will sink. Natural beeswax feels warm, while synthetic beeswax feels as cold as jade and glass.
Experts remind novices that these methods are only effective in identifying fake beeswax with poor synthesis technology, and there are many confusing concepts in the beeswax market. It should be emphasized that although amber and beeswax have some room for appreciation, there are still some risks in collection.
Insiders pointed out that at present, amber is generally difficult to repurchase and realize, and it is difficult to change hands. In addition, with the rising price of amber, some unscrupulous merchants try their best to make fakes, and the means of counterfeiting are constantly being refurbished. The second-generation amber processed with amber powder, products using Barker resin that is not completely petrified into amber, and so on, appear in the market in large quantities. Therefore, investors must be rational and cautious about amber gemstone collection, concentrate on research, understand it carefully, and don't blindly follow suit.