Gua sha board materials are varied, natural stone, artificial plastic and metal materials are numerous. Today, we introduce to you one of the materials for scraping – agate.
Today’s article mainly contains two contents: the material introduction of agate and why we choose it as one of our gua sha raw materials.
What is Agate?
Agate is a kind of chalcedony minerals that are often mixed with opal and cryptocrystalline quartz. The hardness is 6.5-7 degrees, the specific gravity is 2.65, and the color is quite layered. Available in translucent or opaque. The original form of the trigonal crystal system. It is often dense and massive and forms various structures, such as breast, grape, tuberculosis, etc. The common concentric structure. Chalcedony has different colors, usually green, red, yellow, brown, white and other colors. According to the pattern and impurities, it can be divided into onyx, silk agate, moss agate, castle agate, etc.
Irregular block, nearly oblate, cylindrical (for the excess part of processing handicrafts). Red, orange-red to dark red and milky white, off-white. Streaks white. translucent. The surface is flat and smooth, with vitreous luster; some are more uneven and waxy luster. The body is light, hard and brittle, easy to break, and concentric circular ripples with the force point as the center can be seen on the cross section, like a shell. With sharp edges and corners, it can score glass and leave scratches. Odorless, tasteless. Quick friction is not easy to heat. The quality is firm, the color is red, and the transparent one is better.
The main component of agate is silica, which is often repeated in layers due to alternating with hydrated silica (silicic acid). Due to the inclusion of oxidized metals, the color can vary from very pale to dark. Using iron, cobalt, nickel and other salts, allowing them to naturally penetrate into the silicic acid gel, can be artificially made into “agate”, and natural agate may also be generated under similar circumstances.
Why do We Choose Agate As One Of the Raw Materials for the Gua Sha Board?
Our development of gua sha board raw materials mainly follows the following factors:
- Customer and market demand.
- Raw material prices and costs.
- Processing difficulty.
- Material fit.
Customer and market demand: Agate is a very popular semi-precious stone. There is a very large audience in jewelry, home decoration and other industries, so from the perspective of customers and market demand, this is a guasha raw material with good market prospects.
Raw material price and cost: The price of agate is one of the highest among all gua sha board raw materials. It is generally more expensive than the mainstream pink crystal material in the market, but it is also much lower than amethyst, so it is an acceptable cost in terms of cost. scope.
Processing difficulty: The hardness of agate is roughly the same as that of crystal, but due to the characteristics of agate structure, its structure is tighter and the processing difficulty will be higher. If it is made manually, it will take more labor. But the tight texture also has a benefit. That is, it is not easy to be damaged during reprocessing, which reduces material loss in production.
Material fit: Not all materials are suitable for guasha. If the hardness is not enough, it is difficult for the gua sha board to reach the polished state that meets the standard, which will reduce the comfort of use. And if there are a lot of gaps in the material, such as a scraping board made of volcanic rock, because there are abundant holes with large diameters on the surface, it is difficult to say that its use experience is comfortable, or even bad. However, the agate material is hard and has few internal gaps, so it is very suitable for the requirements of the gua sha board.
To sum up, agate material meets the requirements of a qualified gua sha product in terms of customer and market demand, cost, processing difficulty and fit, which is why we choose agate as one of the raw materials for gua sha.
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