The burned red jadeite was identified as A-grade! But this thing is even faker than B-grade goods!

People who like jade are often interested in the most eye-catching red jade. Red is always the most eye-catching color. But when purchasing red jadeite, you must pay attention that not all red jadeite is natural. You must be wary of the burned red jadeite among jadeite, which will also be labeled as A-grade jadeite on the certificate!

Why is burned red jade also considered A-grade?

Grade A jade generally refers to natural jade, but why is burned red jade also grade A? Many people may have this confusion!

There is a legend about burnt red jadeite. When mining jadeite rocks in Myanmar, there were no modern stone-cutting tools. Sometimes some huge jadeite raw stones were difficult to transport, so the locals used fire to burn the raw stones. After reaching a certain temperature, they poured cold water on them, hoping to use the principle of thermal expansion and contraction to make the raw stones crack. But in the end, they found that the jadeite became bright red because of the fire, and finally burnt red jadeite was created.

In the national jewelry and jade standards, all methods other than cutting and polishing used to improve the appearance (color, clarity or special phenomena), durability or usability of jewelry and jade are called optimization treatments, which include two major categories: optimization and treatment.

Optimization (processing on the original basis): heat treatment, bleaching, wax immersion, colorless oil immersion, dyeing (chalcedony and agate except jasper), etc.

Treatment (not originally included but added later): impregnation with colored oil, filling treatment, wax impregnation (turquoise), dyeing treatment, irradiation treatment, laser drilling, coating treatment, surface diffusion treatment, etc.

However, burned red jadeite is neither of the above two types, it is another variant form.

It is: something did not exist originally, but it was forced to exist without adding any materials. But there is no change in essence. It is a kind of heat treatment, so the jadeite is still A-grade jadeite after being heated to red!

Let’s take women’s makeup as an analogy:

Optimization: An ugly woman will become beautiful after putting on makeup!

Solution: An ugly woman forced herself to have plastic surgery, fill it with silicone and pad her nose, and she became beautiful!

Fever: An ugly woman has a fever, a very serious fever, and her face turns red. You think it is a new breed and she feels very beautiful.

So the burned red jade has not changed at all, she is still the same woman. So after testing, it turns out that she has not worn any makeup or had any plastic surgery, and it is still A-grade jade.

How to distinguish natural red jadeite and “burned red” jadeite?

Since we know that some red jadeite is burned red jadeite, how can we avoid being deceived by burned red jadeite when purchasing red jadeite? How can we distinguish natural red jadeite from burned red jadeite?

1. First look at the brightness of the color

Generally speaking, the color of natural red jadeite is a little darker, appearing brownish yellow or brownish red, with varied colors and a sense of layering. The color of burned red jade is relatively bright, distinct and single, without any sense of layering.

2. Look at the delicateness and roundness

The texture of natural red jadeite is relatively round and delicate, with no obvious granularity; however, the texture of burned red jadeite is relatively rough, dry, and has obvious granularity.

3. Look at transparency

The red part of natural red jadeite is relatively transparent, especially at the boundary between red and other colors; however, the transparency between different colors of burned red jadeite does not vary much, and the red part is sometimes less transparent.

4. Look at the color boundary

Some red jadeite is not just red, there are other colors on the surface of the jadeite. There is a clear boundary between the red color of natural red jadeite and other colors, which is a mutation relationship; however, the boundary of burned red jadeite is not clear, and the color is a gradient relationship.

5. Surface smoothness

The surface of natural jadeite is smooth and flat after polishing, and it reflects brightly; "burned red" jadeite will have small dry cracks, its smoothness will be reduced, and its reflection will be weak.

Now that we know how to distinguish between natural jade and burned red jade, let’s talk about the characteristics of dyed red jade!

Identification characteristics of dyed jadeite

Dyed jade is commonly known as C goods, which is a type of processed jade. However, dyed red jadeite and natural red jadeite are both secondary colors superimposed after the formation of jadeite, and the colorants are also similar, both are iron oxide. Therefore, the identification of dyed red jadeite is much more difficult than that of dyed green or purple jadeite. The main identification characteristics of dyed red jadeite samples are:

1. Color characteristics

The color of natural red jadeite often has a certain gray tone and is not bright enough. The red color and the base sheet often present a sudden change relationship, with the red being a darker color band. Dyed red jade is brighter in color, has no gray tones, and has a more even color distribution. The red color and the base sheet are in a gradient relationship, with the red color becoming lighter as you go deeper into the sheet.

2. Structural characteristics

Natural red jadeite has many small cracks and is filled with secondary minerals, forming a typical dendritic and vein-like structure. The materials chosen for dyeing red jade often have no cracks or healed cracks. The red dye seeps into the jade through the capillary gaps and fills the gaps between the grains, forming a three-dimensional grid similar to loofah sponge, which is called the loofah sponge structure.

3. Infrared spectrum characteristics

Natural red jadeite has a typical absorption peak at 3695cm-1. Dyeing red jade needs to be kept at a relatively high temperature for a period of time, which will cause some of the adsorbed water and hydrous secondary minerals in the jade to dehydrate, resulting in the lack of the 3695cm-1 absorption peak.

4. Raman spectral characteristics

Natural jade is mainly composed of pyroxene minerals and does not contain organic bonds. There are no characteristic peaks in the organic bond area, only the Raman peak unique to red jade. Dyed red jadeite has many characteristic Raman peaks in the organic bond region of 1100cm^(-1) ~ 1700cm^(-1), based on which it is judged that these organic bonds are artificially added dyes.

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