Amber and moldavite stones

[azaonim]

Hi there,

New to the forum, happy to be here, this looks like a great wealth of information! I am working on a piece that is silver wire and a naturally shaped amber stone (i.e. not cut and polished in any way), and I am at a point where it seems like I can finish a few solder points, and set the stone. However, I will still need to clean and polish it. This stone has been tricky in that it will chip and flake if too much pressure is applied, so I am worried that if I set it and put the whole piece in pickle that it will ruin the amber.

I have all these same issues with a rough moldavite piece, and the same question applies - will setting and then cleaning with pickle ruin the stones?

[CJ57]

Hi welcome to the forum.
The amber shouldn’t be chipping, it’s a resin and I have a lot of raw amber and have never known it to be that fragile. It is a bit softer though. I’ve never known it flake so I’d ask are you sure it’s amber?
You definitely can’t pickle it, pickle is only used to clean the residue left after soldering.
Do all your solder work and pickle. Do any clean up work necessary. You can then polish the piece and then set, then lightly polish the setting or set then polish. Amber does take some polishing with rouge as long as you don’t press too hard or it will start to melt and get skid marks or gouges.
I don’t know anything about Moldavite but I see it’s a silica which would suggest that it may be more fragile and flake