Among the many members of the jade family, jadeite is the most precious. It is a natural mineral with extremely high hardness and very small output. Its colors are mainly green and red. Red is called jadeite and green is called emerald, hence the name jadeite.

1. Jadeite Grading

1. Special grade: bright green (emerald green), apple green, glassy ground (translucent, fine texture), uniform and bright, without impurities or cracks.

2. Commercial grade: green, oily green background, slightly transparent, interspersed with translucent emerald green veins and speckled jade.

3. Ordinary grade: lotus root powder base, bean green, light green, delicate white, slightly transparent. Opaque jade is generally only used to make jade jewelry.

2. What are A, B, and C jadeite?　　

Grade A jade is pure natural jade. Only after traditional mild surface acid or surface wax treatment, the structure of the jade is corroded and destroyed.

B-grade jadeite, according to the national jewelry and jade standards, is optimized jadeite, which has undergone acid immersion bleaching and wax treatment during the processing process. According to the strength of acid leaching, it can also be divided into strong corrosion and weak corrosion. Strong corrosion optimized jade is equivalent to what is called glue-free B goods in the market. Its interior has been severely damaged. During the processing of glue-filled jade, it undergoes strong acid corrosion and bleaching, and the treatment of removing the inferior and retaining the good. The internal structure of the jade is severely damaged, and then it is injected with a transparent and consolidated colloidal polymer to fill it, which is called glue-filled goods. Whether it is optimized jade or filled with glue, it should actually be defined as destructively processed jade, that is, B-grade jade. Weakly corroded jade should be called optimized jade because it does not cause much destructiveness to its interior. In addition, jadeite filled with water glass (silica) and jadeite filled with nano-level aluminum and silica are all called high-grade B-goods.

Jadeite that is filled with glue and colored, bleached by acid, injected with glue or not injected with glue, and added with dye is called B+C goods.

C grade jade is dyed jade. Regardless of whether it is acid-bleached or not, or filled with glue or not, any jadeite that is artificially colored is called C-grade jadeite.

3. The main identification characteristics of jadeite

Jade properties: Regardless of whether it is jade raw material or finished product, as long as you observe carefully on the polished surface, you can usually see a mottled porphyroblastic interlaced structure. Two forms of jadeite crystals can be seen on a piece of jade, one is granular porphyroblasts with slightly larger grains, and the other is small fibrous crystals intertwined around the porphyroblasts. Generally speaking, the porphyroblastic grains in the same piece of jade are uniform in size.

Stone flowers: Jade contains stone flowers that are small clumps of white fibrous crystals intertwined with each other with slightly different transparency. The difference between this kind of stone flower and phenocryst is that phenocryst is transparent, while the stone flower is slightly transparent to opaque.

Color: The color of jade is uneven, with varying shades of green or black on a white, lotus pink, oily green, or bean green base. Even on the green base there are shades of light and dark.

Luster: Jade has bright luster and is well polished, with a bright, soft and strong glass luster.

Density and refractive index: Jade has a high density and sinks quickly in bromoform, while similar jades such as nephrite, serpentine jade, prehnite, quartzite jade, etc., all remain suspended or float in bromoform. The refractive index of jadeite is around 1.66 (point measurement method), while other similar jades are lower than 1.63.

Inclusions: The black mineral inclusions in jade are mostly affected by melting. The edges of the particles are loose and cloudy, and the green color deepens around the black inclusions, leading to a saying that “green follows black”.

Strong water-holding ability: when you drop a drop of water on the finished jade product, the water drop will protrude higher.

In short, the main identification characteristics of jade are: uneven color, extended green; strong glass luster with oil; interwoven structure of porphyroblasts; cool feeling, and color remains unchanged under the Charles microscope.

4. Quality identification of jadeite

1. Texture. Natural jade is transparent or translucent in texture, with an oily and shiny surface. Upon closer inspection, you can see nearly round, slightly transparent "salt grains" and fibrous substances surrounding them.

2. Hardness. Natural jade is hard jade with a Mohs hardness of 7. It will not leave any marks if scratched by a sharp knife. Fake jade has a low hardness and can be scratched by a sharp knife.

3. Jade nature. When observing natural jade under strong light, you can see emerald flashes of other mineral particles inside it, which are called jade flowers or jade properties. Fakes made of glass, plastic, or porcelain do not have this "jade property" feature.

4.Relative density (specific gravity). Natural jade has a hard and tight structure, no bubbles, high density, and a crisp sound when knocked; fake jade has a loose structure or has bubbles, low density, and a hoarse, unclear sound when knocked.

5. Color. The genuine product has a rich, pure emerald green color. Some counterfeits are made of white jade, serpentine, Australian jade, Korean jade, marble or even miscellaneous stones. After being bleached, they are filled with high-hard plastic slurry and colored, or immersed in green liquid to make "colored jade". When observed under strong light, green lines can be seen, which are messy and small. Some do not show lines, but are turbid and have poor luster, and are lighter than the real ones.

Put the above fake products into the melted wax liquid, and the pigment will slowly precipitate out. This kind of inspection will not damage the sample being inspected and can also distinguish the authenticity.

When observed with a Celsi color filter, the emerald green appears purple-red under the filter, while the color of the natural authentic product remains unchanged.

Some fake jade is made of artificially melted glass, with a loose structure, a uniformly dark green color, and some have bubbles. When struck with a hard object, the sound is hoarse.

5. Purchase of Jadeite

1. Look at the color. Check whether the color is pure, rich and uniform, and use a spotlight to check for hidden impurities. The best ones are those with rich, pure, uniform color and minimal impurities. Among jadeite, emerald green has a higher price, followed by red and purple. Among the green colors, the best is the fresh, slightly yellowish seedling green, followed by emerald green, river green, and oil green. Those with evenly distributed green are the best.

2. Observe transparency. When observed under strong light, the higher the transparency, the better.

3. Listen to the sound. The better the knocking sound is, the clearer and more pleasant it is.

4. Observe the jade quality and stone flowers. When observed against the light, jadeite can be seen to have flashes of other mineral particles (i.e. jadeite properties), and often has clumps of white flowers, called stone flowers. Less is better for both.

5. Look for cracks and black spots. Some cracks exist in the original ore, while others are caused by processing. The fewer the cracks, the better. Black spots are black spots found everywhere in jade, and the fewer and smaller the better.

6. Look at the processing level. The best ones are smooth surface, well polished and in good shape.

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