Amber with a rare piece of hair within.

picture provided by shawn 

Amber is one of the treasures of the fossil world. Preserving every little detail of the inocent victim that it traped. Now for a very low cost you can learn how to polish Amber, just kidding! Below Shawn has provided a simple way to polish amber. Hope you find it interesting and helpful in polishing your Amber!

There are several ways to shape and polish copal / amber. I myself, shape and polish all of my pieces by hand. Therefore, I can only offer you information on how I do it.

Materials needed:
*bowl of water
*assortment of wet-dry sandpaper (200 grit, 400 grit, 600 grit, and 800 grit)
*a dry cloth
*piece of denim
*stiff bristle brush (a toothbrush works well)
and, of course, your raw amber / copal...

Basically start by picking a piece you want to work with, get it and the piece of 200 grit sandpaper wet, and start sanding the pits and scratches.
Be sure not to let the sandpaper dry out. And every now and then wet your amber and dry it off, to see how it looks. Also, be sure not to sand off any inclusions, if found.
Once you are satisfied with the way your stone looks, as far as shape and smoothness, then you are ready to start with the 400 grit sandpaper.
Thoroughly sand all sides to remove the scratches left from the 200 grit sandpaper.
Repeat this, doing the same with the 600 and 800 grit. (To smooth out more and more scratches).
After you have reached the point where it is ready to be polished to a high shine, thoroughly buff all sides on your piece of denim.

That should do it! If you have more questions, just e-mail, and I'll be happy to answer. :-)

                                                                             Thanks, Shawn..
                                                                             The_amber_guy@yahoo.com