How do you evaluate raw jade?

[Customx_12]

Took a trip to Central California and found some raw pieces of jade along the coast. Is there a way to know the quality or value from the outside or is jade one of those things that needs to be cut/polished?

 

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[austin]

Talk to a good jeweler. Sorry the website sucked. Just look up California jade on google.

 

[applesmasher420]

www.jsbste.tripod.com. Talk to a good jeweler.

your link 404'd

custom, i have been finding quite a bit of jade here in the PNW so i aswell was wondering the same thing.

I read somewhere higher quality jade resonates sound better so that may be a good indicator unless shape and size play factors in the resonation.

also, i may have read somewhere that the lighter color the jade the higher the quality. But then again jade comes in many colors and shades so...

 

[Eu_citzen]

Search up a gemmologist or get a book which does help; colour and clarity come to mind.
Origin might also have a word with, I would speculate.

 

[woof!]

There's more than one kind of jade, and there are minerals which are easily confused with jade by an amateur.

That having been said, there are known jade locations in California (particularly along the central coast), and if the specimen you collected was from one of those known locations, that's a promising sign that the stuff is really jade.

It won't be necessary to cut and polish it to identify it as jade, other tests by a knowledgeable mineralogist on the natural specimen will suffice. Regarding value, that's a trickier question. Jade does have some value but it's not a precious gemstone, the stuff occasionally occurs in boulder-sized pieces weighing hundreds of pounds.

--Dave J.