Agarwood beads and chips? The difference in material selection

You may see agarwood chips before and be wondering where they are from? What are they made of?

Have you wondered if agarwood chips and beads made from the same material?

It depends on the density, size of the log, and the pattern of infection.

If the log is soft, small and its shape is irregular, although the infection is high, chips will be made out of it by carving out the white wood. It is difficult to "square" and "round" them because they usually deform during this bead-making process.

Agarwood Chips will be dried in open space to eliminate moisture, the number cause of mould, leading to fault note in the chips.  Once oud chips are"sanitised", they can be stored away or ready to be used in oil distillation or incense making.  

Aquiilaria wood is light and soft usually. However, if you see the below, rock hard, solid wood, high reflection, shiny and resinous, it is typically high quality and suitable for beads making because it can sustain reasonable force from chisels and cutting tools. Have you seen petrified wood? A similar feeling, in Vietnamese, we call it " Tóc Đá", translated as Rock Agarwood.

This material is hard to source as the number of wild Aquilaria tree is decreasing.

The below material were used to make our latest agarwood bracelets, please note it is high quality but not yet to become  "Rock Agarwood."