What is Fire Jade?

I know I know I risk opening the evil Pandora’s Box of Trade Names.
I shudder to think of some of the foamenting around the mouths this
subject can cause… and trust me I’m right there with you.

I’ll cut to the chase, what the heck is Fire Jade? It might have
been Flame Jade I was too busy boggling to really get a good grasp of
the name other then thinking “Trade Name! Marketing Name! Misnomer!
WHY?!?” We are talking a cryptocrystaline stone (rock even?) which
was pale green with some mild blue overtones and the occasional thin
brown/gray patch like the matrix rock had snuck in in places.
Possibly dyed definitly… not to my taste. There was nothing
about that seemed to merit adding Fire or Flame to the name and I am
naturally dubious that it was Jade at all, the grain didn’t seem
quite right but I can’t really say why other then it didn’t quack
like a duck.

I’m not looking at buying these myself I have little interest in
balls with holes in them, more power to those of you who do, they
seem to be popular right now.

The friend of mine that does have this material also had some
confusion from the same source over what was sold to her as Fire
Agate that looked like (and I’m willing to bet a shiny nickel is)
weakly coloured and badly crazed Carnelian. Possibly misnamed and
sold by someone who might have seen Fire Opal once but had obviously
never seen Fire Agate. I’m going to next time I see her show her some
real Fire Agate so I can watch the expression on her face, should be
good.

Thanks for your time!
Norah

Norah

I just had to search for fire jade after your post. If you think
that was weird check on EBay for “Siberian Fire Opal Jade”. I laughed
when I saw them as they look like low, quality peachy colored
carnelian. But “fire opal jade”(:O) what next? I (tongue in cheek of
course) did not realize that you could have opal jade.

Also available are “Fire New Jade” genuine of course, some looks
like Mexican onyx and some look like agates. At least they are cheap.

Karen Bahr
Karen’s Artworx
Calgary, Alberta, Canada

Norah -

Fire jade was initially (late 1940s - early 1950s) the name under
which orthoamphibole from Wyoming was being sold. It was advertised
under this name into the early 1960s in trade publications such as
Lapidary Journal and Jewelry Making, Gems and Minerals. In color it
is a mix of reds, oranges, ochres and browns; in texture it is a
felted fibrous crystalline mass. Like its cousin nuumit from
Greenland it is a very old rock, having been formed well back in the
Pre-Cambrian. From your description it seems that someone has
resurrected the name and applied it to a form of tremolite, perhaps.
Tremolite is one of the rock forming minerals which makes up
nephrite jade.

HTH,

Jim Small
Small Wonders Lapidary
Church Hill, TN