Agarwood Authentication: The Six Most Common Types of Fakes on the Market and How to Spot Them

> This is the first article in our authentication series. Let's start with the conclusion: the key to authenticating agarwood is determining "whether this piece of material has actually undergone resin formation," not merely judging whether it "looks like agarwood." Most fakes can already achieve a 90% visual resemblance; the tells are usually hidden in the logic of how the scent changes and the patterns of resin distribution.

I. Build the Right Mental Model First

Natural agarwood forms when trees of the Thymelaeaceae family, genus Aquilaria, are wounded and secrete resin that co-deposits with fungal metabolites, distributed locally and irregularly within the xylem. This mechanism determines that natural agarwood must have three characteristics:

1. Uneven — resin appears as dots, lines, and patches, alternating with white wood
2. Bounded — the boundary between oil and wood transitions naturally, rather than being cleanly cut
3. Changing — the aroma changes with temperature and time, unfolding in layers

All fakes, in essence, tamper with these three points: either making it more uniform (to look higher quality), making it heavier (to look sinking grade), or making it more fragrant (to look premium). Remember this sentence, and the six types of fakes below will all line up.

II. The Six Common Types of Fakes, Broken Down One by One

Type 1: High-pressure oil injection / high-temperature oil pressing

Principle: Ordinary white wood (with no or very little resin formation) is vacuum-treated and then injected under high pressure with oil (vegetable oil, chemical oil, even asphalt-like substances) to bring its density up to sinking grade.

Tells:
- Overall black and glossy, with an oily feel that "floats" on the surface, like a coat of paint
- After cutting, the interior and exterior are the same color, with no white-wood transition at all
- Sticky to the touch; wiping with a tissue leaves obvious oil marks
- Scent: a single harsh "perfume" note, no layers, stuffy after prolonged smelling

Key identification point: Naturally sinking-grade material will inevitably show mottled oil-and-wood patterns on the cut surface; a uniformly "all-black sinking" piece can almost be ruled out outright.

Type 2: Oil soaking / soaked material

Principle: Low-grade agarwood or white wood is soaked for a long time in fragrance oil so the surface layer absorbs the scent, making it "smell strongly" in the short term.

Tells:
- The scent is extremely strong right when you get it, but fades rapidly after one or two weeks — this is the most typical feature
- Surface color is uneven but the boundaries are harsh; color comes off easily when scraped with a fingernail
- Resin lines are "blurred" together, lacking natural clarity
- Oil stains may seep out after prolonged storage

Key identification point: The speed of scent decay is the core criterion. Real agarwood's scent "becomes more stable the more you wear it"; oil-soaked material "fades the more you wear it."

Type 3: Dyeing / coloring

Principle: Chemical dyes are used to dye pale wood dark to imitate high-oil appearance.

Tells:
- Color is overly uniform, lacking the dot-like and line-like distribution of natural resin lines
- Wiping with a cotton swab dipped in alcohol or water removes the color
- Color "floats," lacking the inner-to-outer luster that comes from resin saturation

Key identification point: The damp-wipe test — natural agarwood does not bleed color; dyed material reveals itself with one wipe. Use this method with caution on old material to avoid damaging the surface.

Type 4: Pressed incense / incense powder compression

Principle: Agarwood scraps and incense powder are mixed with adhesive and pressed under high pressure into blocks, beads, and plaques.

Tells:
- Weight distribution is abnormally uniform (natural material inherently varies in weight from bead to bead)
- No wood-fiber structure visible on the fracture surface; it appears as "powdery agglomerate"
- Powder crumbling marks often appear at the edges of holes
- No natural grain direction; the texture appears "stirred"

Key identification point: Look at the fracture fibers. No matter how much resin agarwood has formed, it is still wood; the fracture surface should show a composite structure of wood fibers and resin.

Type 5: White-wood passing-off (the most common "low-price trap")

Principle: Un-resinated white wood of the same genus is sold as "agarwood" after slight processing or directly as is.

Tells:
- Density is noticeably low (mostly floating)
- Almost no resin lines, or only scattered pale resin dots
- Scent is extremely faint, sometimes just a "raw wood smell"
- Commonly seen in low-priced bracelets, low-priced carvings, and various "agarwood wood" products

Key identification point: "Agarwood wood" and "agarwood" are two different concepts. Agarwood wood refers to the timber of the agarwood tree, most of which has not undergone resin formation; agarwood refers to the resin-bearing portion. The price difference can reach dozens of times. When you see "agarwood wood bracelet, 99 yuan with free shipping," what it sells is indeed agarwood wood, not agarwood.

Type 6: Synthetic fragrance / chemical incense

Principle: Synthetic fragrances are blended to create an "agarwood tone," commonly seen in incense sticks, incense coils, and essential oil products.

Tells:
- After lighting, the smell is harsh and direct, lingers too long, and has an obvious chemical sweetness
- Smoke stings the eyes; after burning, the space retains an odor that is hard to disperse
- Ash color is abnormal (mixed with combustion aids, talc, etc.)
- Scent is completely identical across the same batch — natural incense varies from batch to batch

Key identification point: Smell the "aftertaste," not just the "top notes." Natural agarwood smoke is soft, leaves a clear and elegant lingering scent, and causes no discomfort in the space after it disperses.

III. Quick-Reference Table for the Six Types of Fakes

| Type | Main method | Most effective tell | Difficulty of judgment |
|---|---|---|---|
| High-pressure oil injection | Vacuum and pressurized oil injection | Uniformly all-black throughout, no white wood on the cut | Low |
| Oil soaking | Long soaking in fragrance | Scent decays rapidly within one to two weeks | Low |
| Dyeing | Chemical dyes | Color comes off with a damp wipe | Low |
| Pressed incense | Incense powder + glue pressing | No fibers on the fracture, stirred texture | Medium |
| White-wood passing-off | Un-resinated wood | Light density, almost no resin lines | Low |
| Synthetic fragrance | Synthetic fragrances | Harsh aftertaste, stinging smoke | Medium |

IV. Universal Five-Step Authentication Flow

Step 1: Ask about the source first, then the price.
There is no such thing as cheap natural sinking-grade agarwood. When the price seriously mismatches labels like "sinking grade / old material / soft thread," suspect the label first, not your own luck.

Step 2: Look — three looks
- Check whether the resin distribution is dot-line-patch patterned, with oil and wood alternating
- Check whether the boundary between resin lines and white wood transitions naturally
- Check whether the colors across the whole string show reasonable variation (naturally, every bead is different)

Step 3: Smell — the two-stage method
- Smell at room temperature: Does it have layers (top, middle, and base notes)?
- Smell when heated (electronic incense heater at 60–80°C): Natural agarwood's aroma profile unfolds when heated, and the scent is clear and penetrating; fakes often produce harsh, burnt, or chemical smells when heated

Step 4: Weigh and measure
Sinking is a density indicator, not an authenticity indicator. Fakes that are oil-soaked or glue-injected can also sink. The correct approach is: confirm authenticity first, then use sinking to judge grade.

Step 5: Send for testing
Look at the test items and conclusions in the report, not just the cover:
- If the conclusion includes "alcohol-soluble extractives ≥10.0%, agarotetrol ≥0.10%" → it at least meets the medicinal agarwood standard of the 2025 edition of the Chinese Pharmacopoeia
- If it only says "Thymelaeaceae plant" → it is merely a species identification, not a quality assessment
- If there are no test items at all → treat the certificate as invalid

> One more note: qinan's agarotetrol content is generally low, and most does not reach the pharmacopoeia's medicinal threshold, but its extractive content is very high and its aroma is outstanding. So you cannot use the pharmacopoeia's agarotetrol index to judge qinan's quality — this is a very common point of misjudgment.

V. Three Pieces of Advice for Beginners

1. Build a scent memory first, then talk about buying. Spend a few hundred yuan on a traceable sample or incense sticks and etch the "real" scent into your memory; this is more useful than reading a hundred articles.
2. Don't buy sinking-grade old material on your first purchase. Fakes are most concentrated in the high-price segment. Start with floating material and small loose beads.
3. Accept "imperfection." Natural agarwood always has flaws — white edges, holes, uneven resin lines, inconsistent bead weights. What is impossibly perfect is usually genuinely impossible.

Frequently Asked Questions

Q: Is sinking-grade material necessarily real?
A: Not necessarily. Sinking only means the density is sufficient; oil-soaked, glue-injected, and pressed incense can also sink. Sinking is a "grade indicator," not an "authenticity indicator."

Q: Is the online advice to "burn a little and smell it" reliable?
A: It can serve as a supplementary judgment, but pay attention to the sampling location (take the resin-formed part, not white wood) and use a small dose. Burnt smells mask a lot of information; an open-flame test is less accurate than low-temperature heating in an electronic incense heater.

Q: If there is an authentication certificate, is it necessarily real?
A: It depends on the certificate's test items. A certificate that only identifies the tree species proves that "this is a Thymelaeaceae plant"; it cannot prove that "this is resin-formed agarwood."

Q: The scent of my agarwood bracelet has become fainter after wearing it for a long time. Did I buy a fake?
A: Not necessarily. After natural agarwood develops a patina, the surface is sealed by an oil layer, and the scent becomes "muted"; this is normal. Gently wiping with a cotton cloth slightly dampened with warm water, or letting it rest in a cool place for a period, often restores it. But if it fades rapidly to almost nothing within a few weeks, be alert to oil-soaked material.

---

Related Reading
- "A Complete Guide to Brunei Agarwood: Why It Is Called 'the Hui'an Aroma Within the Sin Chew System'"
- "A Full Interpretation of the Agarwood Section in the 2025 Edition of the Chinese Pharmacopoeia"
- "How to Patinate and Maintain Agarwood Bracelets"
- "Qinan: Why It Can Transcend the Agarwood Classification System"

*This article is original content from China Agarwood Web. Authentication conclusions are for reference only; for high-value transactions, the reports of third-party testing institutions should prevail.*