Jade or not?!

A. G. Maisey · 20th November 2016, 11:58 PM

A quick, on the spot test to identify a jade possibility is to try to scratch the stone with a scriber.

The usual jade substitutes will scratch, jade will not.

It is a possibility test only, but it has saved me an error or two in the past.

Going back a few years I used to sell gemstones to jewellers and lapidiarists in Central Jawa and Bali. Apart from opals and sapphires, the most popular stone I sold to them was good quality chrysoprase. I sold this as rough, and it was marketed as "Hong Kong Jade".

The recent glass look-a-likes are really a trap, in a market setting, they are virtually indistinguishable from the real thing.

20th November 2016, 11:58 PM	#4
A. G. Maisey Member Join Date: May 2006 Posts: 7,085	A quick, on the spot test to identify a jade possibility is to try to scratch the stone with a scriber. The usual jade substitutes will scratch, jade will not. It is a possibility test only, but it has saved me an error or two in the past. Going back a few years I used to sell gemstones to jewellers and lapidiarists in Central Jawa and Bali. Apart from opals and sapphires, the most popular stone I sold to them was good quality chrysoprase. I sold this as rough, and it was marketed as "Hong Kong Jade". The recent glass look-a-likes are really a trap, in a market setting, they are virtually indistinguishable from the real thing.