Testing to destruction China $50.00 a pound jadeite

[Rayw1]

The original photos look exactly like rocks that I bought in Mae Sai in 2007 on the Thailand/Burma border.  The entry point here is commonly used for the smuggling of Burmese rubies and spinel so it makes sense that this stuff is coming out of Burma.
I paid a few dollars for half pound size pieces that did have polished faces.  They are though very grainy and appear more like an aventurine than jadeite.

In Hong Kong jade markets, you can buy any amount of "jade".  Anything at all coloured somewhat green or mauve coloured is sold as jade.  I bought some doughnut shaped polished stones of reconstituted stone dyed green and purple that the seller absolutely positively swore was jade.  At $A2 ($US1.80)a stone it was just good fun.

[LynxSphinx]

As far as good rough or quality in just about any product you want to avoid China. I like to work turquoise but basically boycot Chineese Turquoise. With that said they do own a huge substantial CHRYSOPRASE mine in Australia and all the rough goes to China for processing. I have purchased Australian chrysoprase from the mining company in China and it was top notch. I now purchase chrysoprase from an Auzzie owned mine. China is Communist and opresses over a billion people.

[JadeJunkee]

I believe the term they use in China for these rocks is "gambling stones"...now we know why :-)

[Neural]

On July 28th 2003, US President George W. Bush signed into law the Burmese Freedom and Democracy Act of 2003 (H.R. 2330). This act bans the importation into the United States of any article that is produced, mined, manufactured, grown or assembled in Burma.

So basically now they will sell all their things to us via China, who will add some lead to it before shipping it over here. :/

[Isotelus]

One has to suspect that if any of this rough was good quality they probably would have cut it themselves.

[rockwonders]

I purchased one of these too and had the same results...it's now decorating my garden but doesn't even do that very well!

[Roger]

Sorry for your demise. Thanks for the heads up

[mick B]

Hello Michael, in 2005 I bought 2 pieces of jadeite from a ebay supplier called jade and gem, this material was good but quite expensive, the difference was the entire ends where cut and polished to show the stones true color,  2 pieces cost me close to $300.00 around 200 grams total, nice green material, but this supplier no longer uses ebay and now I cant find him.
Last year I bought a piece of the same supplier as you did, very bad material, same thing, had little polished spots of green,  good material has green showing over the entire stone, the original pieces I purchased in 2005 did, obviously not imperial but still a good green, they also cook some of this material to enhance the color, the piece I bought last year  had a black burnt rind, that had charkol stuck to it. I love good quality jadeite but now it seems nearly impossible to obtain, the good material is not available to the average lapidary cutter, you need a multi million dollar bank balance to purchase this material.
One Scientist in the US is very good on Jadeite, George Harlow, he works for the American Museum of natural Histery, travels the world looking at Jadeite, he tested some of my Aussie nephrite for me,  he has an incredible knowledge on jadeite.

Cheers mick B

[tkcaz]

Are there no reputable jade dealers online, or is the issue just the Chinese dealers?

[gregorgr8]

yes there are.  here are 4 URLs to study.  use the last one first and come see them in Tucson, at main show. 


Jade dealeers

http://jadecarver.com/waterworn.htm

http://r-and-r-rockhound.blogspot.com/search/label/jade

http://www.jadehunt.com/

http://www.timelessjade.com/page/4/


also, I am close to selling my jade and I will describe it honestly.

ps  check out jade through the ages and see them in tucson feb 7 and after.

[mick B]

There has never been any True jadeite found in china, only Nephrite, not putting Nephrite down as some of this material rivals the best Jadeite, any seller stating they have China Jadeite is a misleading statement, yes this material is poor quality Burmese Jadeite, I done an SG test on it and it is jadeite and the weight is correct, the garbage they don,t want, I had a look at the four posts, yes there is good suppliers on ebay, but yet to see any good quality Jadeite, this is because the price of the top material is huge, top quality imperial sells for $40,000 kg rough, only the mega rich China buyers have this material.

mick B 

[instarsia]

Sorry but I would never buy any stones from china is a number rule for me, there are I am sure a few good dealers out there but the chinese are masters of deception and fakes. I once bought large red coral from a chinese dealer in tucson and my friends bought some to it was like $14 when I started grinding on it the water turned red and the coral turned white , I was young and stupid oh well .

[Fullerton]

Firstly, I really enjoy these tests to destruction 

Secondly, thought I'd just say that if you generalise too much ... you are bound to sometimes not always be right.

I occassional use one Chinese ebay store for supply of lapidary rough. Recently, it's been for lapis lazuli and sunstone. I've been happy with the rocks received. Accurate descriptions and cabbing results have been good. Poorer stones are cheaper and better stones are at higher prices - and I've bought both. Even the low grade is cabbable.

So there may be a few good Chinese dealers amongst the shonky ones 

On the other hand I have bought about 5 boxes of rough from a very well known (and, I guess  respected) US supplier. Not sure why I keep going back as I get let down nearly every time with their hand selected rough versus the images and descriptions on their website. eg. an Indian jasper sold to show great colour contrasts had 95% black and a little edge of red. This hurts when I pay about US$60 freight for a 15lb order. I usually get a pound to 3 pounds each of a variety of materials and there's always a couple or more of materials that completely don't make cab grade or are barely there. So half my order is usually a waste of money.

I initially thought, oh well that's the luck of the draw for random rough. But it happens consistently (that I get very, very poor pieces) so I'm now thinking that maybe as an overseas small purchaser it doesn't matter to a US company if I don't get reasonable quality   

[gemmy]

Here is good example of a fraudulent advertising.
I needed some tourmaline beads for a necklace I was designing. I thought I would try eBay.
Here is the link of what i purchased:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/290563219530?_trksid=p2060778.m1438.l2648&ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT


I bought it cheaply and after testing discovered that it is dyed quartz.
It is still for sale on eBay. It appears they don't really care as long as they collect their commission on the sale.

I thought i should share.
If we all start exposing the fraudsters it may stop.