Along many agarwood fan's collection journey, you will be
amazed by many natural forms and types of agarwood in the
market. Since agarwood resin is formed on the entire parts of
the agarwood trees(exclude the leaf), you will have many
interesting shapes of resin coming out from top to bottom and
collection journey will be fun.
Friends who are
not in the trade often ask me about the type of resin formation,especially
for some interesting shape pcs in my warehouse. I will compile a small list below for
the benefits of our readers here.
Type 1 : Agarwood Ears/ Agarwood Shells / Agarwood Hat
These are the type of agarwood which are found in areas such as
the surface, broken branch/joints area.
For beginners,
you will most likely figure out that, certain agarwood shells
are easier to sink then other types of agarwood and certain
shapes are too beautiful and too cute to put on burners :) I am a
fan for Agarwood shells, certain old trader will know the XXL
size sinking shell in the forest, normal agarwood shells are thin and
mostly shallow. To better understand the hardship of craving out
an agarwood shell, you can try cleaning one, the cultivated and
low grade shells are harder to crave compare to the resin rich
grade.
Type 2: Agarwood Heartwood
The heartwood should be the type with the highest resin content
inside the agarwood trees. Most of them are triggered by unknown
infections, take it along with the passage of time, you will
find the beautiful and cooling scent of the agarwood heartwood.
Many high grades heartwood has that waxy and sticky soft
texture, but eventually, it will be "hardened" like normal super
wood. Heartwood which is found in the centre area should
be the oldest among all resination, you can easily find agarwood
ears in the surface but for agarwood heartwood, you need to
harvest the tree to see what is hidden inside.
Sinking
grade heartwood are good for collection, especially those with
thickness.
Type 2: Agarwood Biscuit or the Crosss section of
Agarwood
These are the cross section of the
agarwood trees, fallen by humans or naturally. If you have some
new hainanese/china agarwood, chances are you will find some in
this form.
For cultivated trees, when you harvest the top
portion of the tree, leaving the roots and base behind, Agarwood
Biscuit may start it's formation, some trees are able to
survive, some are not. Agarwood Biscuit are not meant for
serious agarwood collection, unless you can find those vintage
fossil type or super grades. Most are lower in resin but many
are decorative enough to be added to casual collection.
Type 3: Agarwood Ant/Worm holes
Ant/Worm holes agarwood are formed when the insects try to
make a nest or bore through the trees for food. It's quite
common to find "Agarwood borers" in cultivated agarwood tree
farms and in the wild. They will create tunnels and CTE within
the trees and certain parts of it form agarwood resin.
Like i mentioned in my other agarwood articles, most of the
ant/worm hole decoration pieces are super glued, so you have to
understand that it is not easy to crarve out the whole piece
without breaking it. High grade ant holes agarwood are very
sweet and good for burning/distillation. We did a separate ant
hole distillation before, resulting oil was amazing, most went
into private collection :)
Ok, i have completed the 4
types of agarwood formation for you guys, hope you guys enjoy
this agarwood information sharing portal :)