Thread: CAN ANYONE RECOGNIZE WHAT KIND OF GREEN STONE THIS IS ?

Originally Posted by eleblu05

hey zib the link you posted to that stone isnt jade or marble thats a natural stone but its a grey stone it looks green in the pictures but i have bought two of those stones from that site and they are grey

Oooh, I see. I was trying to point out that there are other green stones, and they're not jade....

How is the stone you bought from them....?

The stone that most people call jade and is common in Chinese and oriental carving like figurines and ancient buttons and burial items is nephrite, the indigenous stone found in New Zealand, China, California, Siberia and all over the world in different color and purities. Nephrite is about the hardest stone there is and it is practically only diamonds and other pieces of nephrite that can cut it. The majority of carvings however that you see in antique stores is actually serpentine or what is lovingly called soapstone. It does have a soapy look to it buy it does not make bubbles. Nephrite also has a "wet" look to its hardness is partly due to is fiberous nature.

The gemstone often called jade is not nephrite but is actually Jadeite, a mineral related to nephrite but is unique to itself. Superb jadeite can be so translucent it can approach transparancey, and if the sample is thin and clear enough you can read a type through it. Most jadeite is at least somewhat translucent and the more transparent it is, coupled with intense colors especially a rich green makes it probably the most valuable per carat weight gemstone. Although not as rare as some other gem stones, carat to carat jadeite is much more valuable than any fancy blue diamond or ruby and it held the worlds record for gems per carat for part of the 20th century. No super 300+ carat samples are known to exist like in diamonds, and the value is dictated by the auction houses of China where bidding really has no limits these days and without doubt the finest examples may trade hands behind closed doors. The most important source of jadeite is in Burma, and there are no legal exports out of Burma, now called Mynamar at this time. The histroical deposits of Burma jadeite date no farther back than about 1840 and before that jadeite was only a legend in the east at best and unknown in the west. The mines are not well documented but there is every reason to believe that all occur in an area of 20-30 square miles. alx p.s. needless to say jadeite is one of my keen interests. a

eleblu i just bought one of those stones from the jewelery website listed and i thought for the cost and $20 postage was worth trying even if it just ends up in my unused stone colection,how does the stone you got perform and of course compares to black akansas's and those new thurigans from timbertools,

alx do you know those stones on the jewelery site are made of is it nephrite or something else,are there any sites that sell genuine jade stones as i've always been intrigued by them but have not seen many for sale,

It looks like mine Greek stone whith those layers, how hard is it ? do you have pictures when its dry

well alucard73 i used my stone on a pocket knife and it does give off a white slurry the stone is hard but not glass hard the stone is grey and has little sparkles in the stone( like the french special stone) which you'll see in the second pic the stone is 6x2x34 it come from china but is not a c12k the c12k is harder well here's the pic's enjoy!

What sort of edge did it produce?? i do like the sparkles sounds silly but i like stones with something different about them,if i can't find a use i'll add it to my collection that people insist i'm mad for having,i love that jade stone in your other post and i definitely will have to get one even if it's just to admire the colour and texture

Might the stone the O.P. posted be jasper?

Hi Alucard

No, sorry I do not know of a specific seller of nephrite, but if you do find a seller who is selling nephrite or is claiming to sell blocks of nephrite I would demand a money back guarantee. Antique stores are full of pseudo nephrite carvings that are actually serpentine. One way to determne true nephrite is to try and scratch it with a super hard knife blade. True nephrite will not scratch, it is harder than steel. In fact for that matter if you find a piece of so called nephrite, look for test scratches. alx