Post #467146 by timidtiki on Mon, Jul 6, 2009 5:00 PM

About a week ago the following post was made at Benzart's carving thread relative to the "synthetic jade" discussed above. I quote "These carvings are great! But, I'd be careful with this "Synthetic Jade." It looks a lot like dyed serpentine, particularly if it can be scratched with a steel needle. Bowenite is a slightly harder form of serpentine but still easier to carve. Don't expose synthetic jade to even a little sunlight, as the dye inside the stone will yellow to an awful color. Most of these dyed pieces discolor on their own within 10 years or so. There is no stable dye for jade, even if its polymer-injected."

I still don't know what this material really is but it is definitely not serpentine - it is much too hard. With respect to fading on exposure to sunlight, I've had a piece outside in direct sunlight (except at night or when it was cloudy) for 4 days now. There is no apparent fading yet. I'll run this test for another 2-3 weeks and report the results again here.

If anyone one thinks they have to equipment to undertake definitive tests that will identify this material, please let me know. I'll be glad to send them a piece for their testing and carving pleasure.

There appears to be a lot of inexpensive "jewelry" being sold by some non-US ebay sellers who call this material imperial jade. I've purchased a couple of cheap pieces and confirmed this.

[ Edited by: timidtiki 2009-07-06 17:01 ]