The jade you bought turned out to be "braised"? But the certificate says it is A-grade

The earliest Chinese dictionary "Shuowen Jiezi" compiled by Xu Shen in the Han Dynasty described it as: "Fei means red-feathered bird; Cui means green-feathered bird."

In ancient my country, "jade" originally referred to a bird with beautiful emerald or red feathers.

After Emperor Qianlong of the Qing Dynasty, the word "jadeite" began to be widely used to describe and refer to the colorful jade from Myanmar, which is what we call jadeite in jewelry and jade today.

Most people think that jade should be green, but in fact, from the perspective of the name alone, "fei" and "cui" refer to different colors respectively: green is called "cui", and red and yellow are called "fei".

1. Colorful Jade

In fact, jade has a very rich color range.

Not only are there various shades of green, but other common colors include: white, colorless, red, yellow, purple, black, gray, etc. (Depending on the different color combinations on the same piece of jade, it can be further subdivided into varieties such as white-bottomed green, spring-colored, yellow-and-green, Fu Lu Shou, etc.)

Among them, people separate yellow and red jade into a separate category, which is called "jade" in the business.

2. How did the word “Fei” come about?

The color of jade can be divided into "primary color" and "secondary color" according to its color rendering mechanism.

“Original color”: The color-causing ions in the formation process of jadeite are caused by it.

"Secondary color" means that jade is contaminated by foreign colored substances after it is formed.

The protagonist of today's article: red and yellow "jade" is the main representative of secondary color jade.

When white, purple or green jade is weathered, and there happens to be hematite or limonite in the surrounding environment that seeps in along the gaps between the jade particles over time, it forms what we call "jade".

Generally speaking, yellow jade is mostly caused by limonite, and reddish-brown jade is mostly caused by hematite.

3. Market optimization of the flooded red and yellow jadeite

Although green is the dominant color in the jade market, high-quality red and yellow jade are bright and beautiful, and are also loved and sought after by many consumers.

Among natural jadeite, the output of "red and yellow jadeite" with clean and bright colors is not large. The vast majority of natural yellow jadeite and red jadeite are relatively dull in color, with low color saturation, and even have implicated colors.

This has inspired the emergence of "optimized red and yellow jadeite" in the market to meet supply and demand.

In the jade market, B+C goods that are treated with glue, filling and dyeing after acid washing are used to give the originally dry and light-colored jade a "facelift". Ultimately, most of them are made into green or purple, brightly colored "Fu Lu Shou" and other jadeite.

As for "jade" with poor base color, most of them are natural red and yellow jade with dull color and poor quality that are "optimized" by heating.

4. Heat Treatment of Jadeite

The heat treatment of jade is a physical method of optimizing jade, and is classified as "optimization" among the many optimization treatment methods of jade.

The purpose of heat treatment is to promote oxidation, so that yellow, brown, and tan jadeite can be transformed into bright red.

To put it simply, it is to artificially accelerate the oxidation process that has accumulated over time in the natural environment and artificially change the color saturation of "jade".

Heat treatment method of jadeite

1. Clean jadeite of similar size and heat it in the furnace (it is best to wrap the sample and hang it in the furnace).

2. The heating rate should be slow. When the color of the jade turns into liver color, start to cool down slowly. After cooling, the jade will turn red.

3. If you want to get a brighter red color, you can further soak the jade in bleach and chlorinate it for several hours to increase its brightness.

The red and yellow jadeite whose color is improved after heat treatment has not changed in chemical properties compared to natural red and yellow jadeite, and has the same durability.

Moreover, the optimized color is brighter and more beautiful, which meets the market demand of consumers for red and yellow jade colors. Therefore, heat-treated red and yellow jade can be found everywhere in the market. Even among large-scale red and yellow jade carvings, eight out of ten have been heat-treated.

5. How to identify red and yellow jadeite after heat treatment

As mentioned earlier, jadeite that has been optimized by physical methods is identified the same as natural jadeite that has not been optimized according to national standards and can be issued an "A-grade" certificate.

Therefore, it is impossible to tell whether red or yellow jadeite has been heat treated by relying solely on an ordinary appraisal certificate issued by a jewelry appraisal agency.

But, there are always clues! The formation of heat-treated red and yellow jadeite is basically the same as that of natural red jadeite. The difference is that heating accelerates the water loss process of limonite, causing it to be converted into hematite in the furnace.

From the naked eye:

1. The red and yellow jade materials look drier after heat treatment optimization.

Due to the differences in the color formation process and environment, in terms of appearance, natural red and yellow jadeite has better water content and is more moist, while the heated red jadeite feels dry.

2. Color Difference

The red and yellow jadeite after heat treatment has a "fake" feel that is too bright and heavy. The high-quality natural red and yellow jadeite is bright in color but more natural and the water head is usually not too dry.

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