What is the identification of hawksbill turtle?

We often see some wealthy men wearing tortoise shells on their fingers, which is also a symbol of wealth. However, many people are not very clear about how to identify tortoise shells, and some people easily buy fake ones. After all, tortoise shells are a rare thing and are very expensive. Especially in ancient times, some dignitaries would use tortoise shells to show their power. Here I will explain to you how to identify tortoise shells.

1. Strong light irradiation method: Project the hawksbill turtle under strong light or flashlight, and you can see beautiful transparent patterns on the genuine product. The transparent blood-like patterns penetrate deep into the nail scales, and the color spots are in the shape of countless dots, like small millet dots gathered together to form an irregular shape with jagged boundaries. The bloodshot on the imitation product is in flakes on the surface, and the patterns are dull or clumpy.

2. Polishing method: After polishing, the tortoise shell pieces will present a unique luster and charm. Imitation products do not have this feature.

3. Burning method: Scrape the powder and ignite it or touch it with a hot needle. The real product will smell like burnt hair when burned. Imitations have a strange smell, such as the smell of bakelite and carboxylic acid; celluloid has a camphor smell; and safe celluloid and casein plastic have a vinegar smell.

4. Hand weighing method: The density of hawksbill turtle is 1.29g/cm3. Plastic imitations are 1.05-1.10g/cm3 and are easy to distinguish by hand.

5. Slice observation method: Soak the hawksbill turtle in warm water to soften it, slice it and observe it with a magnifying glass or microscope. Reddish-brown spherical particles can be seen, and the color spots are small round pigment dots with a clear pattern structure. Plastic products are strip-shaped and have clearly defined color bands.

6. The difference between natural tortoise shell and pressed tortoise shell is that the imitation tortoise shell becomes darker in color after being heated, and contains air bubbles and appears elongated. The opposite is true for natural hawksbill turtle.

7. The tortoise shells are pieced together to look thick, but when viewed from the side, you can see that there are differences in color between the different pieces; when viewed through a magnifying glass, you can see traces of glue and residual bubbles.

8. Cow horns are often used to impersonate tortoises in the market to deceive consumers. However, the color of cow horns is far less bright than tortoises, and they do not have tortoise spots (that is, spots mixed with red, black, transparent and yellow). The real tortoise spots have good luster and transparent and beautiful patterns. Cow horns are easy to crack during use, and they crack into layers.

9. The moment the hawksbill turtle is taken out of the water, the water will disperse to all sides, so the hawksbill turtle can avoid fog and wind.

If you don’t know how to buy good tortoise shells, you can refer to the above methods to buy them, such as using strong light exposure method, and some can also use polishing method. No matter what method is used for identification, more diagnosis can help you buy the real thing, and you will not be very distressed because of buying fakes. I hope the above identification methods can help everyone.