Quenching to solid prevents falling into lava below. Amalgamation
can be harvested from the surface with silk touch of Lux-tier
tools.
Attempting to collect with lower Lode-tier tools will likely cause
the loose amalgamation to fall into the lava below, possibly
displacing a source node (if the pool is shallow enough) upward to
fill its spot, then the amalgamation below will melt and the source
node above will quench, so no progress is made.
It's possible to harvest using lode tools, in practice, by
digging down the side of a lava pool and quenching as you go,
until you reach the bottom...
"Amalgam" may imply a mercury alloy, which is
not true in this case; we're using it in the
"combination" sense, i.e. an amalgamation of
molten and solid stone.
Quench lava to amalgam and it can be moved
around like loose cobble. The tricky bit is that it
needs to STAY quenched at ALL TIMES, and is
not (currently) stackable, so water channels need
to be setup to transport it, and limited amounts
can be moved at a time.
It's also an igniter and thus will dry out sponges
left to keep it cool.
