According to the place of origin, it is divided into Changhua Soapstone and Bahraini Soapstone.
Soapstone is said to be “southern blood in the north”. “Southern blood” refers to the Changhua bloodstone produced by the guide, with bright and pure blood color; “Northland” refers to the Bahraini bloodstone produced in the north, with fine and moist texture, few lumps (nails), and easy to carve.
นอกจากนี้, the chicken blood in Changhua bloodstone is often completely separated from the surrounding non-chicken blood. The blood shape distribution has obvious directionality, and the high-grade blood has a high degree of aggregation. The color of the chicken blood in the Bahraini Soapstone and the surrounding non-chicken blood often gradually transitions, the blood is not directional, and the blood shape is relatively scattered. The color of the Bahraini Soapstone often turns dark red when exposed to light.
Quartz phenocrysts are often found in Changhua bloodstones, ที่รู้จักกันทั่วไปว่าเป็น “nails”; while Bahraini phenocrysts are absent.
Soapstone has a high economic value and enjoys a high reputation at home and abroad.
The evaluation of bloodstones firstly looks at blood, and it is better to have a lot of blood, หนา, สีสดใส, และสวยงาม. ตัวอย่างเช่น, the seal stone is full of blood and red as the top grade, ซึ่งเรียกว่า “Dahongpao”; red on all sides comes next; red on the top, red on one side, and red on some parts.
ที่สอง, look at the texture, which is generally determined by color, ความโปร่งใส, ความมันวาว, และความแข็ง. There are usually frozen ground, soft ground, rigid ground, and hard ground. ในหมู่พวกเขา, the frozen ground is the best. It has white, สีชมพู, สีเหลือง, สีเทา, สีเขียว, สีดำและสีอื่น ๆ, and the pure and clear mutton jelly is the top grade.
Soapstone is better with uniform color, ความโปร่งใสสูง, low hardness and fine quality.
Defects directly affect the quality of bloodstone, and it is better to have less impurities and cracks.
Identification of Soapstone:
Due to the depletion of soapstone resources, the output is decreasing and the price is increasing. Driven by high profits, the treatment and imitation of bloodstone have appeared one after another. The common treatment methods are as follows:
The filling process is to fill the cracks or pits with red pigment or cinnabar powder with glue or resin, and then apply a layer of resin after drying.
The surface is waxy or grease luster, hot needle can melt, visible “เลือด” color is single, mostly distributed along cracks or pits, the dye particles are amorphous, floating in the glue.
The coating process is to mix cinnabar powder or red pigment with glue and apply it on the surface to increase the “เลือด” สี. It can be seen that the “เลือด” color floats in the transparent layer, and occasionally there are traces of painting.
The splicing and inlay processing is to splice and inlay the bloodless bloodstone slices with glue, and then do carving or polishing. This kind of bloodstone texture pattern and blood shape distribution are unnatural and discontinuous. Carefully observe the splicing and inlaid traces of the joint.
Imitation soapstone is made of artificial synthetic material or colorless soapstone powder, plus cinnabar powder or red pigment.
The identification method is to carefully observe the structural features, such as the color of the ground is monotonous, almost opaque, the blood shape distribution is abnormal, the density characteristics are also different, and the touch is warm.