B.C. "Yukon Territory" Nephrite Jade Bangle-55.9mm #3

Bangle Specifications:
Inner Diameter: 55.9 mm
Width: 8.7mm
Weight: 22.7 grams

Grading Total: 8

Grading Specifics

• Integrity:               8
• Grain/Fiber:          8
• Translucency:        8
• Color impact:       9
• Polish:                   9
• Workmanship:      9

GRADING DEFINITIONS - JADE
Integrity:  Ability to withstand impact. (Fractures, micro-fractures and brittleness)
Grain/Fiber:  Fine crystalline (Jadeite) or fine fiber (nephrite)
Translucency:  Light penetration into material from a light source
Color impact:  Expected color from material (There are different expectations from different jades from around the world and the jade source locations.)
Polish:  Ability to take a polish. Not all items are high polish but the ability to take a high polish shows a certain aspect in quality.
Workmanship:  Consistency of smoothness, edges, thickness and polish.

Grading Scale:

• 7 to 10: High     
• 4 to 6: Medium
• 1 to 3: Low

B.C. Jade History/Information:

British Columbia jade is found from the south all the way to the Alaskan boarder. Much of the jade I work with comes from the Yukon territory. The colors vary from opaque dark green to clear water jade. All colors and inclusions are found and some of the bright green inclusions from the Cassiar area have a wonderful contrast. It is common to have black chromite spots or inclusions. Some of the best jade from these areas are considered some of the best nephrite jade in the world and fetch top dollar. "Polar" is the rarest jade that is hard to get now days. The mines to access this material have been closed for a while now due to safety issues.

I am adding additional information on the grading of each bangle. The purpose is to help educate all buyers and give people the appropriate information to better understand their purchase, and in the case of “high-end bangles,” their investment. This grading information is my personal attempt to inform others of the qualities of the material on a particular item. There are so many false jades, modified jade and simply inferior jade being passed off to uninformed buyers. I usually only work with high quality, untreated materials, but the materials do vary in quality even within the same stone so this will point out and identify everything about each bangle. When artists work on a piece of jade (in this case, a bangle), they get to personally know everything about the bangle. Many online sellers (including ETSY), are selling bangles made by production methods (CNC or many operators doing only one part of the process at a time), which also means a seller will have no personal knowledge of the item.

** Note: Many items stated to be "Jade" on Etsy and Ebay are not. In many cases, price does not indicate this either so buying an expensive item may be a jade replica like glass. There are many other stones including agate, grossular garnet, serpentine (many forms), aventurine... being sold as jade. To make it worse and more complicated, many jadeite stones are being reconditioned and died to be very attractive so they pass general tests to be real. If you see  very clear bangles, odds are they are agate, glass or something else. If you see very bright colors of red, yellow, purple... most likely not real. I say this as many buyers are being fooled on-line by these practices.