How can we tell the authenticity of jadeite with the naked eye?

Because the jade industry is not very transparent, it is not easy for many people to judge the quality, authenticity and actual value of jade. But people who are very knowledgeable about jade and have rich experience can tell whether a piece of jade is real or fake with the naked eye.

In fact, any matter is not that complicated when you know the key points. A very important factor in judging the authenticity of jade is its jade properties. Next, I will share with you in detail how to easily, quickly and accurately judge the authenticity of jade with the naked eye, and you can easily buy genuine jade!

The special structure of jade

Because the cleavage surfaces of jadeite crystals look like reflective surfaces, as long as you see the characteristics of the reflective surfaces of the grains, you can be sure that it is jadeite. Even if the jade material has never been polished, you can see on the fresh surface that the cleavage planes of the granular sections that make up the jade crystals are sparkling.

To understand the cleavage of jade, we must start with how the internal structure of jade is formed.

Jadeite is a sodium-containing pyroxene jade formed under high pressure and low temperature metamorphic conditions. Therefore, the structural characteristics of jadeite have a prominent granular mosaic metamorphic structure. On the cleavage plane, there are also two obvious groups of columnar shapes. All other jades do not have such characteristics. This can be clearly seen on the unpolished raw materials.

Some jade raw materials may experience weathering due to the influence of the natural environment. Even so, the authenticity of jade can be judged by its structural characteristics after weathering. Because other jades do not have this characteristic.

When identifying the authenticity of jade jewelry, we can use light transmission, such as a common flashlight, or natural light when the light is good. Use a magnifying glass to observe the structure of jadeite. Through observation, we can find that jadeite has lines formed by crystal flow and boundaries under transparent light, while others, such as quartz and nephrite serpentine, do not have this special jade pattern formed by this metamorphic structure.

The following is a detailed description of the most basic conditions for judging the authenticity of jadeite:

It is generally believed that the green nature of jade is "fly wings". In fact, the green nature of jade is not only manifested by "fly wings". The well-known "orange peel effect" and "flocculation" are also manifestations of the green nature of jade. The "jade nature" of jade is an important sign to determine the authenticity of jade. So what is the "jade nature" of jade? It is generally believed that the "jade quality" of jade refers to the reflection of the cleavage surface of the jadeite mineral that can be directly seen on the surface of jade, commonly known as "fly wings". But strictly speaking, the "jade nature" of jade should refer to the intuitive expression of the grain size and mutual combination relationship of jadeite, the main mineral component of jade under naked eye observation. "Fly wings" are just one form of expression of jade's "jade nature"; as the angle from which jade is observed changes, the expression of jade's "jade nature" will also be different.

Jadeite properties

The specific manifestation of jadeite quality, "fly wings", refers to the bright white reflective features that appear on the surface of jadeite when exposed to light, like fly wings. "Fly wings" often appear in long strips or irregular flakes, basically reflecting the size and mutual combination relationship of columnar jadeite minerals. Due to the different sizes and orientations of the jadeite minerals in jade, when the jade is rotated under light, different parts of the "fly wings" will appear with flashes of different sizes, one after another, which is very characteristic. The "orange peel effect" is that when jade is observed through reflection on the polished surface, it will have bumps and depressions of different sizes and directions similar to those of orange peel. The "orange peel effect" is mainly caused by the anisotropy of the hardness of jadeite minerals: the jadeite minerals in aggregate form in jade have different orientations, resulting in different degrees of hardness during the polishing process. The jadeite with low hardness orientation is relatively concave, while the jadeite with high hardness orientation is relatively convex, resulting in a relatively uneven surface with convex and concave surfaces, which constitute the "orange peel effect".

Jade orange peel effect

"Floc" refers to the phenomenon that when transparent or translucent jade is illuminated by side light or bottom light, some cotton-like substances will appear inside the jade, also known as "cotton". The "flocs" are mostly caused by the reflection of light by the gaps between the grains, cracks and impurity inclusions of the jadeite minerals in jade, which is also called the "intergranular optical effect." Since the jadeite minerals in jadeite mainly appear in columnar form, the "flocs" are often in the form of long strips, and some can even show the outline of jadeite minerals, with the cotton wool intertwined with each other; and some imitation jadeite products, such as water bubbles composed of albite or quartzite jade composed of quartz particles, the constituent minerals are all in the form of equal-sized particles, and the observed "flocs" also show sugar-like characteristics; the cotton wool of Xiuyan jade is in the form of clumps.

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