Drewnem Pisane (Wood Written) - Behind the scene - How a pen is made. 21 Production of resin blocks - amber is also resin.

There are about 60 known varieties (species) of amber. The oldest of them come from Devonian formations (found in Canada) and Carboniferous (Illinois, USA); the youngest, not generally classified as amber, are found in South America, Africa, Australia and New Zealand. Baltic amber was formed in the late Eocene about 22 million years ago, when the area of Central and Eastern Europe was flooded by the North Sea and destroyed the Eocene forest growing in these areas. The resin from which amber was formed belonged to coniferous trees. It is still not known what species produced so much of this secretion, but it was some kind of pine Pinus succinifera or Pseudolarix wehri from the genus Larch. The largest known amber deposits, estimated at 90% of the world's total, are located in the Königsberg region (Russia). Interestingly, amber has always been a mysterious and highly desired stone. The ancient Greeks called this stone electron, the Romans - lyncurium (lynx urine), the Egyptians - sokal, the Arabs - anbar, and the Persians - karuba. Even the Jews gave it their own name - chaszmal, which means God's Power, Angelic Power, Breath. The Polish name amber comes from the German Bernstein (a stone that burns). Its color is very diverse from white, yellow through orange brown to black. In this respect, it resembles honey in color. However, there is also a natural green variety called earth amber, in which there are often numerous gas bubbles formed during putrefaction processes and transparent fragments of this amber have a greenish tint. Uniformly red and mosaic green amber unfortunately result from heat treatment, i.e. roasting amber in an autoclave. On the other hand, the white or milky yellow colour is natural and milky amber owes this colour to small air bubbles trapped inside - the more of them there are, the closer to white the colour. In our pens, particles of Baltic amber are embedded in resin. In order for the amber to be visible, the entire block must be tightly packed with amber, and the spaces must be filled with resin. Unfortunately, during the production of a fountain pen, about 80% of the amber is cut, hollowed out and goes to waste. It's a bit of a shame, but there is no other method. Therefore, this loss of material is reflected in the price. Interestingly, an illuminated amber pen shines beautifully, and additionally in the light of a UV lamp, the amber will shine yellowish, bluish or greenish.