Does amber have an odor??

[hoppes]

I presented a 1895 Austrian Meerschaum pipe on this board about 10 days ago. It appeared to have an amber stem and a wooden tenon repair.I am replacing the wooden tenon with an authentic bone tenon and have noticed that the stem smells very strongly of camphor? , similar to Vicks Vaporrub.I'm questioning whether this is really amber or some substitute made from celluloid or other camphor-like material. Did the Austrian Meerschaum makers use camphor-containing material in their stems? I don't think it will be at all pleasant to smoke with the current original mouthpiece.Anyone an amber expert and how to identify true amber? Thanks, Hoppes

 

[ashdigger]

Not that I've ever noticed.

 

[sablebrush52]

Does amber have an odor??

If she doesn't bathe, probably.

 

[ashdigger]

^^ I Heard that.

 

[cosmicfolklore]

Is it a very red color? True amber doesn’t have an odor. It is more like a natural gemstone. However, the owner of the Briary once gave me some blanks of a reddish material that he said was an antique artificial amber, pre-Bakelite material. It had oxidized to a reddish color on the outside. He had asked me to cut some cabachons for some earrings from it for his wife. Once I had ground the first layer off, it was an amber color, with some tortoiseshell patterns in it, and it had a camphor smell that irritated my sinuses. It wasn’t tortoise shell, because that has a distinctive smell also, more like an animal. I can’t remember what he called this antique plastic, but it was pretty. It lost that odor after it was polished, so, I assume it was the oxidation.

 

[Chasing Embers]

reddish material that he said was an antique artificial amber

Redmonol?

Does amber have an odor??

None of mine do.

 

[condorlover1]

I was told by Ric at Briarville that amber smells like eucalyptus when getting heated through grinding and this occurred whilst working on one of my pipes. There are several types of synthetic amber used by the Victorians that if I ever see on any new pipe acquisitions I immediately junk due to cancer risks. Redmond is OK but amber-ine and some of the others get a one way trip to Briarville for immediate replacement. I have been told you can test amber with a very hot needle and I am sure there are other ways that a google search will probably turn up.

 

[pipestud]

hoppes, believe it or not, there are several easy tests that will tell you whether you have the real deal or a synthetic. Just watch this video that gives both verbal and visual instructions - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4rEN6Kc5b9k

 

[anthonyrosenthal74]

If she doesn't bathe, probably.

Beat me to it! :rofl:

 

[redglow]

Sounds like a very Kool pipe

 

[trouttimes]

Great info Pipestud. Thanks. I always learn things here from you folks.

 

[hoppes]

dfo: The smell worsens if you sand or rub the stem.

pipestud: The stem does not float in salt water.

So it appears this is not amber. What would the Austrians use for a stem on a 1895 meerschaum pipe?? Must be some type of celluloid product.Probably not too healthy to use in a pipe !! Will have to make a new stem and relegate the original to the "What the heck was this" file. Hoppes

 

[Chasing Embers]

Probably not too healthy to use in a pipe !

I'm guessing you've never seen an asbestos pipe.

 

[ashdigger]

I have an asbestos pipe and I smoke it regularly at fire scenes. I'll dig up the picture of me with it stuck in my respirator.
Asbestos has to be friable, not compressed for it to mess with you, but what do I know.

 

[Chasing Embers]

Asbestos has to be friable, not compressed for it to mess with you, but what do I know.

Just bringing it to the table as I have had a few celluloid stemmed pipes with no issue.

 

[osiris01]

This is quite an appropriate topic for me at the mo. I have a Comoy meer and can't find any information on it at all, but I think it is a relatively contemporary pipe, maybe 70s/80s Turkish. I assumed that the stem was some synthetic/acrylic material made to look like cherry amber, but when I started cleaning up the button with 800 grit, I got a very strong scent of, what to me, smelled like tea tree oil. So I put it under UV and it fluoresced. Now I know most cherry amber is not naturally red but heat treated to achieve that colour, but since artificial amber/copal etc does not fluoresce, I have assumed it to be amber. The meer is excellent quality, completely flawless and whilst amber is very rarely used on modern pipes, I again assumed that this was a higher end pipe that used amber as a statement (as Peterson's have done I think).
None of this is particularly helpful to the OP, but from my research (which may not be correct of course), amber and copal both have scent of pine/eucalyptus, although the scent is slightly different (I think the surface needs to be abraded or heated first). However, under UV (365nm and less), copal does not fluoresce. When I was working on this, I tested out a few things on an very old broken stem that I did think was amber. This stem did not have any scent and when I did a hot needle test, I got a burnt plastic smell. Both stems once cleaned and buffed had no scent/taste I could detect and I have put a few bowls through the Comoy since and the stem felt very similar to Lucite and had no smell.
Sorry, a fairly incoherent post from me, but to address your question, amber does have a smell when heated or ground, as does copal. However copal does not fluoresce whereas amber does. I think it unlikely that any other synthetic stem material smells as such unless it is a compound made from tree sap that is not considered either copal or amber, but I don't know if any such material was used by pipe makers back then, but it is odd that it has a scent so strong that you can smell/taste it on a finished stem.

 

[mso489]

It's true, asbestos is a problem in particulate form when it can be inhaled. But would you want to ream an asbestos pipe? You might get into the bowl under the cake, then puff in the particles. There could be other scenarios that could happen that would sound too far-fetched but that could cause trouble. Does Amber have odor? Some people have noses like bloodhounds and can probably smell starlight.

 

[osiris01]

Dug out a few pics. My light is meant to be 365nm - I'm doubtful, but you can get an idea.

 

[osiris01]

Incidentally, I think Vicks still contains gum turpentine which is distilled pine sap and smells very similar to ground or abraded amber.