Amber...how old? Hope this is the right site to post it in?

[curious kat]

Found these here and there...maybe just "sap"...they are hardish...so how to tell their age?

 

[Harry Pristis]

Here and there and hardish are not useful descriptors.

 

[curious kat]

...LOL...yes, guess not Harry..sorry Actually forgot where...somewhere out in the pines, on the ground. I suppose they're more than likely just hard sap, not really amber yet!? How long does it take?

 

[old digger]

Depending how warm it gets I would think it would take at least a year or more for the sap to completely harden.
I find a lot of that dried sap when I am out and about, I mostly find it under the ''Limber Pine'' trees. Some of it is hard but most of it is still somewhat soft. I have collected some of the soft sap and have heated it up and mixed it with candle wax and made some candles. With the pine scent mixed in with the wax it really does emit a rather nice pine scent.

 

[gunsil]

What you have is hardened pine sap. It takes millions and millions of years for it to become fossilized and be called amber. Much amber is 100 million years old. By the way, the way to tell if an object is real amber and not a plastic imitation is to put the object in a glass of water. Real amber will float.

 

[Jason in Enid]

plastic doesnt float?

 

[gunsil]

Not the type used to fake amber.

 

[curious kat]

That's a great tip old digger! And thanks guys....yes just sap I guess. Wow, millions of years...awesome thought!