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Originally Posted by kahnjar1
FROM IBRAHIIM POST ABOVE;
Thinking aloud ~I suspected amber(ar. anbar) or composite... ~ It has the colour of Yemeni amber. When it burns (hot pin test) I imagine it is quite pungent. The only other thing I know about amber is that it floats...not a practical test on hilts clad in silver etc.
Ibrahiim...I think you are getting mixed up between Amber and Ambergris. Amber is a tree resin (not sap), and is often found in geologic seams, and Ambergris is from Sperm Whales and does float. Is often found on remote beachs within proximity of whale habitat.
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Salaams Khanjar 1 ~ Not quite. Here are extracts from wiki encyclopaedia description~
History and etymology
The English word amber derives from the Arabic anbar, via Medieval Latin ambar and Old French ambre. The word originally referred to a solid waxy substance derived from the sperm whale (now called ambergris). The sense was extended to fossil resin circa 1400, and this became the main sense, as the use of ambergris waned. The two substances were confused, because they both were found washed up on beaches. Ambergris is less dense than water and floats, whereas amber is less dense than stone, but too dense to float.The word ambar was brought to Europe by the Crusaders. In French ambre gris (lit. gray amber), became used for ambergris, while ambre jaune (yellow amber), denoted the fossil resin we now call amber.
Amber occurs in a range of different colors. As well as the usual yellow-orange-brown that is associated with the color "amber", amber itself can range from a whitish color through a pale lemon yellow, to brown and almost black. Other uncommon colors include red amber (sometimes known as "cherry amber"), green amber, and even blue amber, which is rare and highly sought after.
Yellow amber is a hard, translucent, yellow, orange, or brown fossil resin from evergreen trees. Known to the Iranians by the Pahlavi compound word kah-ruba (from kah “straw” plus rubay “attract, snatch,” referring to its electrical properties), which entered Arabic as kahraba' or kahraba, ( note by Ibrahiim~kahraba gave to the Arabic system a word meaning electricity !! ) it too was called amber in Europe (Old French and Middle English ambre). Found along the southern shore of the Baltic Sea, yellow amber reached the Middle East and western Europe via trade. Its coastal acquisition may have been one reason yellow amber came to be designated by the same term as ambergris. Moreover, like ambergris, the resin could be burned as an incense.
The resin's most popular use was, however, for ornamentation—easily cut and polished, it could be transformed into beautiful jewelry. Much of the most highly prized amber is transparent, in contrast to the very common cloudy amber and opaque amber. Opaque amber contains numerous minute bubbles. This kind of amber is known as "bony amber".
Pictured below is a piece of light weight black ambergris and some yellow amber. They are both used as perfumes.
Regards,
Ibrahiim al Balooshi.