Tagged “trade-names”
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Type A, B and C jadeite
The letters are a treatment classification, not a quality grade. What each one means, what it applies to, and why a listing's Grade A is neither.
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Chalcedony, agate, and jasper
The fine-grained quartzes are quartz by composition and a different material in the hand: tougher, waxier, and the easiest of all stone to dye.
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Marble, calcite, and the soft white stones
A white or honey-banded tool is very often a carbonate: soft, cleavable, and the one material a household acid identifies outright.
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What bian stone is
Bian stone is a category name, not a mineral species. Understanding what it does and doesn't specify explains why the label tells you so little.
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Nephrite, jadeite, and what jade means
Jade is two unrelated minerals with different compositions and hardnesses — plus a long list of trade names for things that are neither.
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What a certificate of authenticity proves
A laboratory report and a certificate of authenticity are different documents. One states test results; the other states that the seller says so.
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Amazonite and the feldspars
Amazonite is a green potassium feldspar, and feldspars have cleavage — planes of weakness that no amount of hardness compensates for.
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Aventurine, goldstone, and the glitter
Aventurine glitters because of flat mineral flakes inside it. Goldstone glitters because someone put copper in molten glass. They are not the same.
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Serpentine, the stone most green tools are
Serpentine is a mineral group, not a species, and it is what a large share of inexpensive green stone tools are made from. Here is how it behaves.
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How stone trade names work
Trade names in the stone market follow a small number of grammatical patterns. Learning the patterns is faster than memorising the individual names.