> Oh, I forget, this is the 21st century, not the stone age ;-)

No, it's America [r][tm], not a place where someone would call an item to
be sold by its real name. Amber is well-dried rosin (as in, x million
years long dried or so - under the Baltic sea most of the time, and with
those delicate little bugs from the Jurassic conserved inside whole so we
can study them now - some serious long term testing nobody will try to
beat I think).

Notice the word 'rosin' in many organic flux descriptions ? Guess what it
stands for. In poorer places plain amber is used as electronic flux (solid
as is or mixed with solvent). The electronic purity variety is much better
but real men are not afraid of recrystalisation and filtering (hot or
solvated) of plain pine rosin, and they can fumble with some litmus to
make sure the PH is neutral.

If you don't believe me, go to a music shop, buy a small can of violin
rosin take it home, gently dunk the soldering iron into it, and solder.
Tell me what happens (besides the nice pine smell). Incidentally violin
rosin is very expensive because it is highly purified.

Peter

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