4 Simple Ways to Tell If Jade is Real Jade or Fake

Jade has been a prized gem in many many cultures for thousands or years. For it's appearance, properties and it's believed spiritual benefits. But many do not know much more about it than that it's beautiful green color. And what even is fake jade? We have put together this guide to better help you understand real jade and how to not get fooled by it's counter part treated jade. Here, we hope to take you through some of the most common questions!

In one of our YouTube videos, we had a bunch of people asking questions like 

So we are writing this blog to help you clarify some of the things like:

How to tell the jade is real?

How to tell the prices & quality of my jade??

How to know the difference between jadeite and jade?......

Disclosure: These methods mentioned below are just methods to give a general idea of whether or not the jade is real. Only a professional test will ensure the 100% authenticity of a gemstone. Last blog we mentioned "5 ways to tell the jadeite jade bangle is real" and there was this very useful yet easy to understand chart. But today we will talk about the four ways to determine if your jade real mentioned in this video.

#1; The Jade has to feel dense in your hand;

Jade is a dense stone, it will feel sort of like a magnet in your hand. A lot fo customers come to our showroom and bring their bangles in and asks us to see if it's real. Usually, it's very very, and it feels light in relation to its size. If it’s a big carving, and it’s very light. Then that is most likely not jade. Or if a bangle is relatively big yet light like glass. 95% of the time is not real. ("Real" referee to A grade natural jadeite jade). 

#2: The jade is very very colorful;

Another one of the very obvious telltale sign is that if the jade is very very green, and very even in color, it’s probably fake. Here are some examples.The colors are probably dyed into them, and jade that has dyed color tends to fade after a long time of wearing.Also with jade, the value of it comes from 4 things, the color, the texture, the craftsmanship, and the transparency.If we look at the bangles shown above, the color truly is marvelous, but if we look at the price of its counterparts sold by Sotheby's, the world-renowned auction house. We can really see where it doesn't make sense. Here's a video of the genuine jadeite bangle that was sold by the auction house  Sotheby's. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=th_yKM02wxg , ourtesy of sotheby's.com

One very obvious sign of the jade bangles on the left being fake is notice how the bangles are so smooth and very even color. Compared to the one on the right which is a bangle around 4000 dollars. The texture of the stone is natural, looks like one that would come out of the ground and doesn't look like it's treated. 

The color and texture is very similar to the bangle on the right, yet the price difference is night and day. In nature, jadeite like this is very very hard to come by. But a bangle that is dyed and treated, it worth a tiny fraction of its value.

I asked My mom, who is a jade lover and who was in the jade business for over 25 years, : "Hey mom, how do you take care of a jade bangle?" She said: “You really don't need to take care of it, as long as you don’t ding it or bump it into something really hard and break it. It will definitely last you a very long time, these things are passed down from generations after generations.

#3: Does your jade get scratched;

Third tale-tell sign is to see if it gets scratched. Nephrite Jade has a hardness of 6 to 6.5, jadeite has a hardness of 6.5 to 7. So it’s quite a bit up there! So if you scratch it with one of your house keys. It shouldn’t scratch. Because of its interlocking crystalline structure, it’s very very good for daily wear. Disclosure: Jadeite is tough, but it will break if hit really hard against something.

#4: The sound of the jadeite jade:

This is particularly for jadeite bangles. In the video, I demonstrated how to do this test on your jade bangle. You can hang your jade bangle up by a thread, kind of like how a triangle is hung up. And grab a quarter, and cling is against the bangle. You should hear this high pitch noise, the sound is kind of like a triangle. With a minor difference in timber.

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