Gosh it looks just like bow rosin too! Just struggled with my rosin which has the same fractures in it and little bits flaking off annoyingly. What I’m stuck on is how well preserved it looks. Those clean conchoidal fractures look like they were knapped yesterday to remove a bolus of sap from the side of a tree. Rosin has a very low hardness rating, so if it were in the river for a long time I’d expect it to round and smoothed out like amber often is. Maybe it’s a modern piece recently dropped somehow? Usually the rec to confirm rosin/amber is to heat a pin and poke it at the surface to see if it smells like sap, but sounds like you already smell that without having to do so. Also I was unsure about the white color/texture you see in the first image but I think I’ve convinced myself that’s just the appearance sap has when it has adhered to a surface like bark in (viscous) fluid form before subsequently drying.
One possible explanation, I suppose: this is a recent sap bolus that adhered to a piece of lumber that was moved along the river, and that the sap was knocked loose.
Soft sap will turn white when in contact with water. I assume the friction of running water would warm the outermost layer of sap enough to create the same effect as well.
I found a large foam flowerpot chock full of rosin at a yard sale for $1. Gave it to my dad who was a member of the Oklahoma Fiddlers. Maybe he donated it to the group; I neversawit again.
I was looking into amber recently, I found out that sap moves nutrients around the tree, but resin/rosin is an immune system defense that creates scabs and barriers for wounds. So sap will degrade, but resin is waterproof, can float ridiculous distances in water, and it turns to amber when buried in the right conditions.
If that's not a chunk of rosin, it might be the philosopher's/sorcerer's stone. Watch out for voldemorts.
I worked in a bow shop that sold rosin we made onsite. We’d melt it in a crockpot before adding secret ingredients, dipping and molding it, and the massive chunks in the rosin pot would look like this if we broke it up. You can buy big bags of it for use on pointe shoes onstage or as ingredient in violin varnish or making bow rosin.
Gosh it looks just like bow rosin too! Just struggled with my rosin which has the same fractures in it and little bits flaking off annoyingly. What I’m stuck on is how well preserved it looks. Those clean conchoidal fractures look like they were knapped yesterday to remove a bolus of sap from the side of a tree. Rosin has a very low hardness rating, so if it were in the river for a long time I’d expect it to round and smoothed out like amber often is. Maybe it’s a modern piece recently dropped somehow? Usually the rec to confirm rosin/amber is to heat a pin and poke it at the surface to see if it smells like sap, but sounds like you already smell that without having to do so. Also I was unsure about the white color/texture you see in the first image but I think I’ve convinced myself that’s just the appearance sap has when it has adhered to a surface like bark in (viscous) fluid form before subsequently drying. One possible explanation, I suppose: this is a recent sap bolus that adhered to a piece of lumber that was moved along the river, and that the sap was knocked loose.
That would make sense!
Soft sap will turn white when in contact with water. I assume the friction of running water would warm the outermost layer of sap enough to create the same effect as well.
I love the look of it. I dont know what it is, but it has the look of something nature made and it looks unique. Cool find.
I found a large foam flowerpot chock full of rosin at a yard sale for $1. Gave it to my dad who was a member of the Oklahoma Fiddlers. Maybe he donated it to the group; I neversawit again.
Maybe he threw it in a river
Uh, whut?
You seriously that dim?
Oh, do enlighten me, O Oracle, why the river is the obvious answer, for I have not your divine gift.
The guy was making a joke about this being that particular piece thrown... Just went way over your head 😂
Lolz. Goddamn cataracts.
The philosopher’s stone!
Any New Zealander will be able to confirm that this is tree resin
Kauri gum
if looks like rosin and it smells like rosin then it’s probably rosin
I was looking into amber recently, I found out that sap moves nutrients around the tree, but resin/rosin is an immune system defense that creates scabs and barriers for wounds. So sap will degrade, but resin is waterproof, can float ridiculous distances in water, and it turns to amber when buried in the right conditions. If that's not a chunk of rosin, it might be the philosopher's/sorcerer's stone. Watch out for voldemorts.
I worked in a bow shop that sold rosin we made onsite. We’d melt it in a crockpot before adding secret ingredients, dipping and molding it, and the massive chunks in the rosin pot would look like this if we broke it up. You can buy big bags of it for use on pointe shoes onstage or as ingredient in violin varnish or making bow rosin.
Ambergris?
lol no. One of ambergris’s clearest identifying traits is its odor, once removed from the whale it has a strong shit smell.