7 Simple Ways to Distinguish Genuine Jade from Fake or Inferior Jade?

7 Simple Ways to Distinguish Genuine Jade from Fake or Inferior Jade?

Though the following are some ways that are said to be some normal ways to distinguish a Real from a Fake one, you have to be experienced by testing with more Jade pieces and having a good sense on it. These will help you ROUGHLY distinguish; an accurate classification requires professional knowledge and laboratory tools.

(These methods cannot help you to distinguish a Grade A from B, B+C, C Jade)

1. The weight of the piece. Jade, even the lesser density nephrite jade like Xiu jade, is heavier than regular glass or resin. For Burma jadeite, the weight is very easy to tell, since you can feel the heavy sensation in your palm when you are handling it.

2. Observe carefully, there are tiny air bubbles in fake jade most of the time.

3. Cooling effect. Jade has the property of cooling very fast and ,remains in cool temperature. Hold a piece in your hand until you feel that the temperature of the piece is equal to your body's, then open your palm right away and put the jade aside. After about 25 seconds in regular room temperature surrounding, use the tip of tongue to feel the piece. If there is a very cool sensation, then it is most likely jade.

4. Jade is more durable than glass. If you wear a piece and it breaks very easily, it definitely is not jadeite. Even the soft nephrite jade should not break easily.

5. Texture, the texture of jade is very smooth. Run your finder nail on the surface of the piece, if it feels bumpy on your nail, but the surface appears to be smooth, it is most likely not jade. This method works better on glass and other synthetic resin fake jade.

6. The Sound test. Let two jade bracelets loosely hang on one of the fingers on each of your hands, and then collide the two bangles very lightly. If the bracelets are made from jade, the sound should have a very clear, pleasant and higher pitch sound than the sound produced by two pieces of glass or other synthetic substances.

7. The method which delivers the most accuracy is to break the piece. If the piece is made from jade, then the inside should be composed by tiny mineral particles you can see. However, if it is made from glass, the broken surface should be smooth with glassy pattern.

What is Jade?

What is Jade? Jadeite or Nephrite?

"Jade”, or “Yu” (玉), as it is called in Mandarin, is strictly speaking a generic term for two different gems, Nephrite and Jadeite (翡翠 Fei Cui).

The name “Jade” is derived from the Spanish “piedra de ijada”, loin-stone, jade having been recognized by the Amerindians as a remedy for kidney ailments. Because of its beneficial effect on the kidneys, the stone was also known as “lapis nephriticus”. That, indeed, is where the term 'nephrite' came from.

Jadeite and Nephrite are both regarded in China as “zhen yu”, “genuine jade” (真玉). It was not until the beginning of the 19th century that mineralogists and gemmologists started to differentiate between them, since they bear a considerable resemblance to each other in terms of their appearance, their hardness and the properties they exhibit when being processed.

In almost all dictionaries, the Chinese character “Yu” (玉) is translated into English as “jade”. However, this frequently leads to misunderstanding: Chinese, Koreans, and Westerners alike generally fail to appreciate that the cultural concept of “jade” is considerably broader in China and Korea than in the West. A more accurate translation for this character on its own would be “precious/ornamental rock”. It is seldom, if ever, used on its own to denote genuine jade in Mandarin Chinese; for example, one would normally refer to “ying yu” (硬玉 “hard jade”) for Jadeite, or “ruan yu” (軟玉 “soft jade”) for Nephrite.

The Chinese names for many other ornamental non-jade rocks also incorporate the character “Yu”, and it is widely understood by native speakers that such stones are not, in fact, true precious nephrite or jadeite. Even so, for commercial reasons, the names of such stones may well still be translated into English as “jade”, and this practice continues to confuse the unwary.

Jadeite and Nephrite are both tough, since they consist of dense, close-grained, matted aggregates, but they differ from one another in their chemical composition and colours.

Nephrite ranges mainly from mid to dark green or grey-green, but it can also be white, yellowish or reddish.

In most case, Jadeite displays hues and its colors are more vivid and include green, white, russet, black, and delicate lavender. Some saying said that: the red or yellow ones are named “fei”, the green ones are named “cui” which concludes the name of the collection: Fei Cui (翡翠).

In both minerals, the way the colour is distributed varies a great deal. Only in the very finest jade is the colour evenly distributed. Both nephrite and jadeite often have veins, blemishes and streaks running through them, though these may not always be regarded as flaws. On the contrary, some of these patterns are considered particularly valuable.

At the moment, due to the comparatively higher reorganization and higher value, we are selling only Jadeite which is coming from Burma and is carved in China Canton.