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Identifying jade and hardstone

Toughness and a greasy lustre.

Jade (jadeite or nephrite) is exceptionally tough with a slightly greasy or waxy lustre. It feels cold and dense in the hand, and it resists scratching — though scratch-testing a finished object is a test to skip.

Worked with abrasives rather than carved, it shows smooth rounded cuts and drill marks without the bright facets of a chisel. Polished stone axes of Neolithic Europe, Chinese ritual jades, and Mesoamerican pieces are all abrasive-worked in this way.

Nephrite runs from cream to spinach-green; jadeite spans a wider palette including emerald, lilac, and white. Separating the two minerals by eye is unreliable — say “jade” or “nephrite/jadeite, untested”.

Many green stones are sold as “jade”: serpentine and soapstone are far softer, glass is warmer and bubbly under a loupe. Density and toughness are the honest discriminators, and a gemmological test settles it when it matters.

From the guide library inside Collectors Catalogues, a free app for cataloguing antiques and finds with honest, museum-grade records.

More on materials

Copper alloy or bronze? — Why cataloguers say “copper alloy”.

Identifying copper alloy — Copper, bronze, and brass — telling them apart.

Identifying silver — Tarnish, hallmarks, and the ring test.

Identifying gold — Why gold looks untouched after centuries.

Identifying iron — Corrosion, lamination, and magnetism.

Identifying lead and pewter — Soft, heavy, and dull gray.

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