Collecting agarwood bracelets has become a laborious and expensive hobby.
Love with agarwood
A few times I visited the "Hy Lac" shop on Tran Hung Dao Street (Hai Duong City), I was impressed by the elegant, sweet scent of agarwood bracelets. The owner of the shop is Mr. Pham Hai Son - a person who has loved collecting agarwood bracelets for many years. Each bracelet has a different size, color, and even origin. Displaying agarwood bracelets at the shop helps him spread his love and the story of his own agarwood bracelets. Customers who come to the shop love and want to learn more are all enthusiastically shared by Mr. Son. Once, by chance, he met an acquaintance who was living and working in Taiwan, Mr. Son was attracted by the bracelet on his friend's hand and the story associated with it. What made him especially interested was the gentle, elegant scent of agarwood. It made him nostalgic and painstakingly collect them, even though their value is not small.
To date, Mr. Son's collection has more than 10 agarwood bracelets originating from Vietnam and many countries around the world such as Cambodia, Laos, Indonesia, Malaysia, China with a total value of about 150 million VND. Mr. Son believes that he is lucky to have met people who understand and truly love agarwood. Some of the bracelets he owns were found by friends at home and abroad. The most valuable bracelet he owns is a sunken agarwood bracelet worth tens of millions of VND.
Through research, Mr. Son said that since ancient times, kings and nobles have favored items made from agarwood such as pillows, scented bags, and house protection items... Among them, bracelets - one of the familiar jewelry items, are meticulously crafted from the precious wood of the same name that always gives off a fragrant scent.
Agarwood is not a tree but is formed from a wound on a tree of the Aquilaria family. From the wound, the tree will secrete an oil to protect itself. Over time, this oil will accumulate to create agarwood with a slightly brownish black or grayish brown color, with a characteristic mild fragrance. “Each person has a different aesthetic taste, it is difficult to give a general standard for the beauty of agarwood bracelets. However, the agarwood on the bracelet symbolizes preciousness, sophistication and simplicity. This factor creates beauty for agarwood bracelets in particular and agarwood products in general,” Mr. Son added.
After many appointments, I had the opportunity to chat with Mr. Pham Cong Duy in Hai Duong City - a person with many years of experience playing agarwood bracelets. The appointment between me and him was interrupted partly because Mr. Duy is quite secretive about sharing his hobby, and partly because he had just had a long business trip in Khanh Hoa.
During his recent trip, Mr. Duy stopped by Van Thang agarwood craft village in Van Ninh district, witnessing with his own eyes the meticulous craftsmen making unique agarwood bracelets. Mr. Duy said that no "connoisseur" does not know the reputation of agarwood and the fine art and sculpture products from Khanh Hoa. This place is known as the "land of agarwood" with many precious types of agarwood, and the most is the mountainous forest of Van Ninh, associated with the poem "Khanh Hoa is the land of agarwood/ High mountains and vast seas, beloved people come and go/ Bird's nests are fragrant and sweet with the love of the homeland/ Deep rivers and rocks carve oaths of the country". Many fine art and agarwood products made in this land are made into sophisticated bracelets, necklaces, etc. With agarwood chips, the main material to create agarwood bracelets, the craftsman must have the technique to create shapes such as round, square, oval, etc., then combine them into bracelets. Thanks to being handmade, the agarwood bracelets are highly durable and sophisticated.
Because of his love for agarwood bracelets, Mr. Duy spent a lot of time researching and enriching himself with stories about agarwood. Among the bracelets he owns, he went to the production site to learn about and buy many. “This hobby brings me memories of rustic, simple things, slowing down in the hustle and bustle of modern life. You have to really love it and spend a lot of time and effort to be able to own a satisfactory agarwood bracelet. To me, agarwood bracelets are also feng shui objects, bringing luck and peace,” said Mr. Duy.
Classification by experience
According to some people who are knowledgeable about agarwood bracelets, there are currently no regulations from the State or any organization on standards for classifying and evaluating the quality of agarwood. In buying and selling transactions, classification is largely based on feelings and experience. Therefore, players must be really sophisticated and knowledgeable to be able to distinguish between real and fake. In the agarwood bracelet playing world, it can be temporarily classified into 4 levels including agarwood toc kien, agarwood ball, agarwood near sinking and agarwood sinking.
Mr. Son added: "The agarwood quality represents the naturalness and uniqueness of agarwood. Carefully observe the surface of each bead, examine the grain and density to detect whether the product is artificial, glued, or patched."
With experience in playing agarwood, Mr. Nguyen Quoc Manh in Tu Ky district shared that real agarwood bracelets often have natural colors with uneven grain lines mixed on the wood background. The wood color is uneven but dark or light depending on the region because the amount of essential oil will be distributed differently in the wood grain. When smelling natural agarwood bracelets, they will have a light, long-lasting fragrance, while the fake agarwood scent will disappear during use. Agarwood bracelets with an oil content of over 25% can sink in water. Fake agarwood bracelets look shiny black, have a pungent fragrance, when burned, the incense goes straight to the nose, a very unpleasant burning smell.
Agarwood bracelets are now a popular jewelry item and each agarwood bracelet will bring special meanings to the user. The gentle fragrance emanating from agarwood bracelets brings a pleasant, relaxing feeling. To increase the aesthetics and meaning, agarwood bracelets are also combined by craftsmen with stone charms, gold and silver, Pixiu...
Lost money buying fake goods
Because she believed in the "winged" words on social networks that wearing a feng shui bracelet brings good luck, is compatible with her destiny and is cheap, Ms. NTT in Ninh Giang district ordered it. However, when using the bracelet, Ms. T. felt disappointed. Ms. T. said: "When I first wore it, the bracelet had a rather pungent smell. After 1 week, although I kept the bracelet very carefully to avoid moisture, my hand became red and itchy."
On online shopping sites and Facebook, agarwood bracelets are very popular. Each place sells them at a different price, from a few hundred thousand to a few tens of millions of dong, with introductions such as “guaranteed natural agarwood”, “100-year-old agarwood”, “200-year-old agarwood”, “500-year-old extremely rare sandalwood”… There are even many accounts selling agarwood bracelets with the “feng shui” label on the product and “infusing” them with thrilling stories to attract customers.
In the early days of collecting, because of believing in the "winged" words on social networks, many players, including Mr. Son, bought fake agarwood products for several million VND. In fact, when buying agarwood bracelets through social networks, it is difficult to avoid risks because it is impossible to check the material and scent of the product. Therefore, buyers need to go to a reputable address or ask experienced relatives to help them find a purchase.
You have to really love it and spend a lot of time and effort to be able to own a satisfactory agarwood bracelet"
Natural agarwood is divided into many different types depending on the quality, including agarwood, agarwood, and agarwood with eyes. Their prices vary depending on the quality of agarwood, the age of formation, and the rarity. Normally, 1 kg of natural agarwood ranges from tens of millions to billions of dong. Ky nam is the type of wood that is considered to have the best quality among all agarwood today. Compared to natural agarwood, Ky nam is known as an extremely precious wood, with a scarce quantity. As for artificial agarwood, it is quite cheap and is sold widely on the market today.
NGHIA ANSource
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