Three methods to identify jadeite: look and feel!

As a kind of hard jade, jadeite is quite popular among the public. As jadeite jewelry has great potential for appreciation, more and more citizens and collectors have a special liking for jadeite. So, what is the current situation of the jade market? What is the public’s level of awareness about jadeite collection? In response to these hot issues, Li Jiayi, vice president of the International Gem Identification and Research Association and contracted chief jewelry appraisal expert of IGTR, will introduce some tips for identifying jade.

The so-called tips are for collectors who have purchasing experience. Without purchasing experience, there will never be any tips. Experience is bought with money. It is recommended that you take the time to sign up for some amateur training courses before purchasing, which is very important for collectors. Remember not to trust some so-called experts easily. You must understand some basic knowledge of jadeite before purchasing.

First look: look at the jadeite's properties, structure, and color

Look at the properties of jadeite: look at the glassy luster of jadeite and the inside and outside structure of the jadeite fly wing.

Look at the structure: look at the texture coarseness and light transmittance of the jade.

Look at the color: color has color root, which can distinguish the foggy color clusters of injected color.

Second touch: touch the feel and texture

The feel is a cool green feeling, rather than the sticky feel of the coating.

Nine out of ten jades have lines. The biggest difference between lines and cracks is to touch the folds in jade with your fingers to feel whether it is uncomfortable.

Three weighing

Jade has a strong feeling of pressure. Compared with the so-called D-grade jade that is easily confused with jade of the same volume, it is obviously slightly heavier.

The most important thing when buying jade is your eye for it. If you like a piece at first sight, don’t worry about its color or type, as long as it is real, buy it. If you see too much and your eyes become blurry, you need to learn to "recognize types and distinguish colors." Generally, the first thing that comes to mind when buying jade is the green color. Many people like jade that is particularly bright or full of green. If this type of jade is genuine, it must be top-notch. However, fake varieties are mostly concentrated on these jades. Therefore, when you encounter this type of jade, you must look carefully.

In fact, jade comes in many colors, including red, yellow, violet, brown, white, blue, etc. You can choose whatever you like. The so-called patina in the industry refers to the phenomenon that jade is exposed to water, soil and other substances in the environment for a long time, and naturally produced water or minerals erode the jade body, which is a partial or complete change in the jade. Common patina colors include water patina (white), cinnabar patina (red), soil patina (earth brown and red), mercury patina (black), iron patina (dark red), copper patina (green), and blood patina is also red, but it has not yet been determined whether this name is appropriate.

Currently, the counterfeiting of jade is nothing more than adding color and removing impurities. But in terms of color, there are usually three ways to enhance the color of jade: baking, dyeing, and coating treatment. Color baking refers to changing the original brown or yellow jadeite through fire, into red jadeite with good sales appearance. Dyed jade, which we call C-grade jade in our jargon, refers to fake jade that has been artificially colored. C goods have no value and will not appreciate in value. The coating treatment is to use the principle of applying nail polish to apply highly volatile green glue on the ring surface. Jadeite that has been treated with coating is often double-sided and full of green. It feels a bit sticky to the touch and will easily fall off if rubbed hard.

From the perspective of removing impurities, B-grade jade is a product that is made from natural jadeite raw stones through later artificial processing. Its essence is still jadeite raw material, but because of its poor texture and many impurities, it is beautified by merchants in order to make profits. Usually, 83 material is selected, which is bleached in acid, washed with alkali to increase the porosity, and finally filled with epoxy resin to solidify.

The Secret of Jade Basic Industry Terminology

price

We often hear terms like "this price is in the low five" and "this value is in the middle six". What do terms like low three, middle four, and high five mean? First of all, Small Three, Medium Four, and Large Five represent a price range, not a specific value. Small, medium and large represent the first digits 1-3, 4-6 and 7-9 of the price respectively, and the following three, four and five represent the number of digits in the price. By connecting the dots in this way, we can quickly know that the third grade is 100 yuan to 399 yuan, the fourth grade is 4000 yuan to 6999 yuan, and the fifth grade is 7000 yuan to 7999 yuan. If you think a product is only worth about 800 yuan, you can say "this price is in the junior year".

Water head

Water head refers to the transparency of jadeite. If the water head is long and sufficient, the transparency is high; if the water head is short and poor, the transparency is low. There is also a saying about the water content, which refers to using a spotlight (point light source) to observe the transparency of jade, and using the depth of light to measure the length of the water head. For example, a depth of 3 mm is one point of water, a depth of 6 mm is two points of water, and a depth of 9 mm is three points of water.

Emerald

The jadeite texture refers to the cleavage plane or crystal plane of monoclinic pyroxene in jadeite. The reflection of light appears as flaky, needle-shaped or star-shaped flashes. This phenomenon is called "jadeite texture". People in the industry often describe them vividly as mosquito wings or fly wings. Generally speaking, the larger the monoclinic pyroxene grains, the easier it is to observe the jadeite texture.

Reflection

Reflection refers to the mutual printing relationship or coordination between the green color in jade and the ground, water, etc. Only when color is well coordinated with "water" and "ground" can the beauty, brightness and value of jade be strongly reflected. The good reflection is called "spirit", and the bad reflection is called "death". Good reflection is manifested in the jade's fine structure, rich color, uniform tone, high clarity, good water head and high value.

Pine flowers

Loose flowers refer to some lumps, patches, and strips that are vaguely visible on the surface of jade, like dried moss. It is the trace left by the green color of the original jade raw material gradually fading after weathering. Based on the color depth, shape, direction, amount and density of the pine flowers, one can infer the depth, direction, size and shape of the green color inside them.

pit

"Pit" is a relatively vague concept, which originated from the mining pit. Some documents say that it refers to the time that jade has been buried underground. The older the pit, the more recent the pit. The quality of jadeite from old mines is better, while the quality of jadeite from new mines is worse. This statement is actually unscientific, and how to express it scientifically remains to be explored.

Skin

The skin refers to the crust formed by weathering of secondary jade raw materials during the transportation process of flowing water or natural forces. The colors of the skin include black, gray, yellow, brown, light yellow, and white. Based on the characteristics of the jade skin, one can roughly estimate the quality of the jade inside. For example, if the skin appears dense and smooth, it usually shows that the interior is good; if there is an invisible moss-like substance on the surface of the skin, it often reflects that there may be green inside.

python

Python refers to the directional distributed band-like or ring-like protrusions seen on the surface of jade raw materials. Its formation may be related to the combined effects of directional dynamic metamorphism and hydrothermal alteration. The presence of pythons indicates that the species is old, and there may also be green, which is generally distributed parallel to the python belt.

There is water wherever there is a dragon

The so-called "dragon" actually refers to the green color in jade. That is to say: under normal circumstances, no matter in terms of the coarseness or transparency of the texture, the green parts are better than the parts without green. Of course, sometimes the difference between the jade green and the ground is too strong and needs to be studied.

How to identify and purchase jadeite?

As early as 1995, a jade necklace was sold at an auction house for a sky-high price of more than 30 million Hong Kong dollars, setting a world record for the highest auction price for a single piece of jade jewelry at the time. While causing a great sensation, it also launched the domestic jade collection market. So, how to choose jadeite and how to collect it?

In recent years, it has been very good and occupies an important position in jewelry, which is mainly because jadeite has special charm. There are generally three points: First, jade is a gem that wins with its color. Its colors are gorgeous and cover almost all tones and some transitional colors. Among them, the rich and noble green is the most popular among consumers. In recent years, the calm and gentle purple variety has also been loved by middle-aged consumers. In addition, some consumers also have a special liking for colorless and transparent glass-type jadeite.

Secondly, jadeite has particularly good polishing properties, and the smooth finished product has a bright glassy luster. Its texture is fine, its density is relatively high, and the finished product has a strong sense of drooping.

Finally, the physical and chemical properties of jade are stable, and its original color is not easy to change. With a hardness of 7 on the Mohs scale, it can withstand knives, keys and abrasion. In addition, its structural fibers have good texture and toughness and are not easy to break, making it one of the seven gemstones recognized in the world.

What should novice collectors pay attention to when choosing jade jewelry? First of all, we need to find out whether it is jadeite. There are many fakes on the market, the most common ones are dyed aventurine, marble, etc., and even glass is used to impersonate jade. They usually appear with irregular names such as "jade pieces", "green Buddha", "Burmese jade bracelets", etc., but in fact they are far from the value of jade. Secondly, there are some processed jade jewelry on the market. One of them is to use low-quality jade that has been pickled to remove colors that people don’t like (such as black, gray, etc.), and then filled with resin to increase the "water head". This is the so-called "B goods". There is another type of C-grade jade that has been dyed, and there is another type of jade that has been both filled and dyed, which is called "B+C" goods in the industry.

Most customers have difficulty identifying the above-mentioned imitation jade or processed jade. The best way is to ask the merchant to produce an appraisal certificate. This certificate is legally binding and is issued by an appraisal agency with a third-party impartial status.

Experts say: Good jade is not everywhere. The value of jade is not only related to its size, but also to its color, type, carving and subject matter. The finer and more uniform the crystal particles are and the fewer internal impurities they contain, the better the "head" will be. Currently, the only gem-grade jadeite production area discovered in the world is Myanmar. With raw material and processing fees constantly rising, there is still room for the price of high-quality jadeite to increase.

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