How to tell the authenticity of sandalwood beads

Sandalwood bracelets are becoming more and more popular in the market. But what bothers many people is the price of sandalwood bracelets. The price on Taobao ranges from tens of yuan to several thousand yuan. This price has discouraged many friends who are interested in sandalwood. I once met some customers who bought sandalwood bracelets for more than 2,000 yuan, and the taste almost evaporated in about half a year. I want to polish it again, but after grinding, the taste becomes nondescript. It turns out that the merchant pasted a layer of ebony skin on the surface, which was wrapped with miscellaneous wood. In addition, there are many methods of counterfeiting. Some manufacturers use white basswood, cypress, rue, birch and Lu Junsong to pretend to be colors, then soak them in artificial essence and spray them to pretend to be sandalwood. These are common methods of counterfeiting. At present, the clever means is to string several Fiji or Dong Jiazhu into a string of beads and sell them as Laoshan Sandalwood, or directly sell the old materials from Dong Jia or Fiji as Laoshan Sandalwood, which is difficult for sandalwood lovers who have little knowledge of sandalwood to distinguish. A few days ago, a northeast customer came to talk about submerged sandalwood, and even injected lead into sandalwood beads to pretend to be submerged sandalwood. Profit-driven, such fraudulent means are more and more, and they are becoming more and more sophisticated. It's hard to prevent. If you want to keep yourself from suffering in this muddy water. First of all, we should have a general understanding of sandalwood.

Let's start with sandalwood. There is no sandalwood in China at present. Sandalwood in China died out hundreds of years ago. I was lucky to find a sandalwood in Hainan. Its growth age is at least 200 years, and the white skin of the tree has rotted, leaving only heartwood. Moreover, it has been bitten by sandalwood insects, and everyone who knows it knows that sandalwood essential oil bitten by insects has the highest content. Its taste is condensed without washing, which is very natural. Personally, I feel better than Laoshan Tan. Several friends joked that it could be used as perfume directly. Sandalwood is mainly imported now, and the common sandalwood in the domestic market can be divided into four categories: Laoshan incense, Dimen incense, Sydney incense and Xinshanxiang incense. (Baidu search "sandalwood" can refer to it) The main thing here is the price. Laoshan Xiang refers to the wild sandalwood produced in the deep mountains of Mysore and Bangalore in southern India. But sandalwood is also produced in northern India. Nowadays, when many people talk about Indian sandalwood, they say it is old mountain incense, which is wrong. There is a gap in taste and density between sandalwood and Laoshan incense produced in northern India. Laoshan tea is divided into old materials and new materials. Old materials are rare now. The market price is about 25 yuan 12 ~ one gram. (It depends on the size and completeness to determine the price. Some people will ask, how to distinguish new materials from old materials, and this article will say at the end. New materials are cheaper. About 3500 ~ 5000 Jin. Most of the common Laoshan Tan carvings and Laoshan Tan bracelets on the market are made of new materials. Dimenxiang, which is what we call Indonesian sandalwood, includes the present East Timor sandalwood. The market price of sandalwood in Indonesia is generally 1200 ~ 1800 kg. Sydney fragrance is sandalwood from Fiji and Tonga. Its taste and shape are very similar to the taste of Laoshan incense. In particular, sandalwood was added to the East and sold as Laoshan sandalwood. The market price of Fiji sandalwood is similar to that of Indonesia sandalwood. 1300 ~ 1800. Collection-level old materials are another matter. The price of sandalwood in Dongjia is slightly higher than that in Fiji. The price is around 1500 ~ 2200. It should be noted that the prices here are only common materials in the market. If it is oily, it will be much more than this price. For example, Indonesia's top old things. If the strip is large and the oil content is above 3.0%, 5000 kg may not be available. Xinshanxiang refers to sandalwood produced in Australia. Generally represented by Western Australia. It is also the most common sandalwood in our market, and its price is stable. The best Western Australian material I have ever seen costs only 450 a kilo.

The price of sandalwood logs came out. The price of finished products can be accounted for. Focus on Laoshan Tan. Laoshan tea is now flooding the whole market. Ask any merchant and they all say it's Laoshan incense. It's true. The key is what level Laoshan incense has reached. Is it 3500 Jin of Laoshan incense or 25000 Jin of Laoshan incense? There is a great difference in rank between them. How to tell. This is going to be very professional. Dalbergia Dalbergia is rare because it has a growing period of at least 60 years and must grow in wild forests. The poorer the place, the better the material, similar to sea yellow. Because of barren, sandalwood grows slowly, with high wood density and high oil content. The storage time after cutting is at least twenty years. This can only be regarded as an entry-level old mountain fragrance. If it is an old tree that has grown for more than four or five hundred years. It is estimated that no one will sell it for 50 thousand 1 kg. Most of the new materials are planted in artificial forests. The land is fertile and grows rapidly. But the density and the amount of essential oil are certainly not as good as the old materials. Distinguish the standard, but it is difficult to determine what is the top old material between the lines, and give you a reference:

The characteristics of the old mountain at the top.

First, the top Laoshan sandalwood is mellow, long and dark brown, which can sink straight to the bottom of the water. On the color and quality of sandalwood. My view is this: Sandalwood beads in Laoshan, India are usually divided into yellow meat, red meat and black meat by color. Black meat is the rarest. Indian sandalwood changes from brown to dark brown or even reddish brown with age. I think the highest state of Indian sandalwood is dark reddish brown, which is the so-called black sandalwood. From the perspective of wood science, sandalwood becomes more oily as it gets older. With the growth of age, it never sinks, and its head sinks and its tail floats. This is an intermediate state. Therefore, it is reasonable to believe that the oil content of diving must be higher than that of non-diving. From this point of view, non-artificial diving (excluding artificial 502 or lead irrigation) should also be used as a quality index.

Second, the top grade Laoshan sandalwood should be uniform in color and delicate in material. Some people think it is best to weather the old trees in the mountains.

Third, the top sandalwood should be crystal clear with the texture of rhinoceros horn after patina.

Fourthly, the annual rings and longitudinal texture of sandalwood change from inconspicuous to inconspicuous with the growth of tree age. The older the tree is, the less obvious the rings and textures are. So sandalwood with obvious texture is not top sandalwood.

Five, the top Laoshan sandalwood can ensure stable quality. On the problem of sandalwood cracking: After twenty or thirty years of standing, the properties of the cut sandalwood wood have been very stable, and the cracked sandalwood has also cracked (sandalwood is hollow or dark, so-called ten sandalwood and nine empty, which is also very vivid). What has not been cracked is very stable. Beads made of top sandalwood without cracking and coring are of very stable quality. This new material is unstable and easy to break.

6. Wood contains oil, containing 2.5%-6% of rosewood oil, and the oil yield of rootstock can reach 10%.

Seven, when the powder burns, it has a strong sandalwood gas and a special fragrance. When it burns, it is stronger, warmer, slightly bitter and slightly spicy.

Eight, alcohol immersion test, excellent immersion, light weight, long reddish brown, containing sandalwood pigment and deoxysandalwood pigment. Immersion liquid cannot be used as dyeing raw material.

Nine, cut on the cross section of the wood with a sharp knife, and curl the slices. Plane with a plane, the shavings are curved.

After reading these, I believe many friends are still confused. In the final analysis, sandalwood can only be distinguished by smelling more and seeing more. My personal way of distinguishing is simple. Look at the color first. The darker the brown, the better. Secondly, the taste, the top old sandalwood will give off a faint milky white fragrance, which has a sweet feeling. This feature is not found in other sandalwood. Very charming.