What are the toughness, jadeite and rigidity of jade?

Jade is a charming and beautiful stone that has a history of thousands of years in China. Oriental people like jade and make it into various ornaments to wear on their bodies. So, what are the characteristics of jade?

Correctly understand the toughness of jade

Toughness refers to the ability of an object to resist impact, tearing and breaking. The ability to resist impact, tearing and breaking is called toughness or strong toughness. In contrast to toughness, brittleness means being easily broken by impact.

Toughness is related to the crystal structure and texture of minerals. Generally, single crystal gemstones have low toughness and high brittleness, while jade has high toughness and low brittleness. Among jades, jade with a fibrous interwoven structure is tougher than jade with a granular structure or a fibrous granular structure. Jade with a felt structure is tougher than jade with a fiber interwoven structure. For example, the structure of Hetian jade is a felt-like structure, while the structure of jadeite is mostly a fibrous granular structure, so the toughness of jadeite is smaller than that of Hetian jade. The structures of Dushan jade and quartzite jade are mostly granular and very brittle. The finished products are easily broken, so their prices are not as high as jadeite.

One of the characteristics of jade is durability, which depends on two aspects: one is hardness, and the other is toughness. Generally speaking, when jade of the same hardness is ground, the jade with greater toughness will appear harder. For example, the hardness of agate is 7, and the hardness of nephrite is 6~6.5. Obviously, the hardness of nephrite is lower than that of agate. However, due to its great toughness, nephrite appears to be harder than agate during processing and is more difficult to process. The order of toughness of common gemstones from high to low is black diamond, nephrite, jadeite, corundum, diamond, crystal, aquamarine, peridot, beryl, topaz, moonstone, chrysoberyl, and fluorite.

Correctly understand the rigidity of jade

The rigidity of jade is due to its very fine texture, very tight bonding between grains, and high hardness. Through polishing, it achieves the perfect unity of light, shape and craftsmanship. The light is clear and sharp, the contrast is strong, and the extremely pure jade surface makes the refractive index effect significant. The optical effect produced makes people feel as hard and strong as the surface of steel, with a cold feeling.

Jade rigidity has two meanings:

1. Jadeite that appears rigid is extremely hard, as hard as steel. This is the conclusion drawn when compared with jadeite that does not appear rigid.

2. The visual sense of rigidity is caused by the light perception

The difference between jadeite's rigidity and fluorescence: Jadeite's rigidity is reflected in light, and the hardness of the material can be felt from the light, which is different from jadeite's fluorescence. Jade fluorescence is when light acts on jade, causing uneven brightness on its surface. This creates a visual contrast for the human eye. A soft, white, hazy light can be observed floating on the surface of jade. The fluorescence is also affected by the shape, angle, and curvature of the jade itself. The key to fluorescence is that the jade has enough transparency to make the surface of the jade glow and shine due to the action of light.

The jade properties of jadeite can be divided into the following three categories:

1. "Floc": "Floc" is the phenomenon that some cotton-like substances will appear inside the transparent or translucent jade when illuminated by side light or bottom light, also known as "cotton". 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. However, some imitation jadeite products, such as water bubbles composed of albite or quartzite jade composed of quartz particles, are composed of equal-sized particles, and the observed "flocs" also show sugar-like characteristics.

2. "Fly Wings": "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" are mainly caused by the reflection of the cleavage surface of jadeite minerals in jade, and 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.

3. “Orange peel effect”: 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 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". Therefore, the size and mutual combination relationship of jadeite mineral aggregates can also be seen from the "orange peel effect" of jade.

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