Agarwood Through an experienced user's eyes: Part 2: Agarwood beads

Touch and feel: Identifying Real and Fake by Hand

Use your hand to rub the surface of agarwood. If it is genuine agarwood, the surface will feel oily, sticky, and cool to the touch. Fake agarwood does not have these characteristics. You can also feel its weight by hand — the oil content is directly proportional to its actual weight. The more oil it contains, the heavier it is; the less oil, the lighter it is. 

Warning: this is not an easy task because an Agarwood bracelet or a mala will usually weigh less than 40g usually.  Most of the time, they are between 6g to 33g.

An AA Battery will weigh around 30g, I show you the above two images for you to get an idea.
If anything over 40g, you need to watch out, usually it is usually counterfeit.  Why? I will explain next

The reason why counterfeit Agarwood is heavier than the genuine ones

First I will show you how a counterfeit Agarwood bracelet is made

It all starts from this healthy Aquilaria cut. You see, this Aquilaria is very healthy because it it is damaged, Agarwood will be formed. SInce it is healthy, there is no Agarwood

From the healthy Aquilaria log, we can make a healthy Aquilaria beads. This bracelet has mimimum amount of Agarwood

So to "enhance" its look, there are a few "tricks". I will list a few per below

• Soak it in special mixtures
  The wood pieces were put into containers filled with "dye". These liquid are aromatic. They may contain Agarwood oil, herbs, smell like dried medicinal substances.

• Steam the wood
  The tubes were heated in hot water at 90°C for 12 hours. This made the wood turn darker in colour, so it looked more like real, high-quality agarwood.

• Final heating
  After steaming, the wood was heated again in warm water at 70°C for 30 minutes.

 This process make Agarwood beads much denser, hence the weigh increase, hence it is heavier than the genuine Agarwood.

The aroma of these counterfeit could be good. BUT once you experienced genuine Agarwood smell by burning Agarwood wood chip. You can identify immediately these counterfeit. So my advice is to burn Agarwood chip if you are new to this game. 

These counterfeit Agarwood bracelet can be very convincing, especially to people who are new to agarwood and have never smelled the genuine Agarwood before. Sometimes, when a fake piece is heated, you might even see oil coming to the surface, which makes it seem more even more authentic. Well the oozing is actually from the mixture in the beads as explained above.

Another point I want to show you

The quality of  Agarwood is not better just because it smells stronger.

Genuine agarwood should have a subtle fragrance, and the ideal temperature for its scent to be released is  around 39°C. Normally, if you do not deliberately smell it, you might not smell anything, or the scent might be faint. At such times, you can gently rub it with your hand, and the scent will come out, but the scent will not linger on your hand.

If it is fake agarwood, your hands will have a lingering fragrance from the aroma mixture after you rub it. 

The key takeaway is this: if you do not have experience with agarwood and cannot recognise the real scent or appearance, you should not try to buy it on your own. It is too easy to be fooled by these well-made fakes. The best way to avoid being scammed is to first learn about agarwood and get familiar with what the real thing looks and smells like before you start shopping.

How do genuine Agarwood beads look?

Genuine agarwood has an inconsistent pattern. If it is a real agarwood product, its colour could also change slightly overtime, especially if it contact with your body. Take an agarwood bracelet as an example — the rate of colour change depends on the owner’s body temperature and the surrounding environmental temperature, so every person’s bracelet is unique. 

Most of the time, the colour is darkened as our body chemicals will harmonise with the Agarwood

I chopped my Agarwood bead to show you how it looks outside and inside

You can see there are many oil line which later will become resin as these harden over time.

Many people have never encountered real agarwood, they do not know what its scent and colour should be like. They only hear that the more oily and black it is, the better it is. 

Therefore, counterfeiters add "oil" (fragrance mixture)  to wood to impersonate agarwood. However, this type of agarwood lacks oil lines. You must be extra careful when purchasing. From a visual perspective, genuine agarwood, whether it is full of oil or a common piece, should have oil lines; a lack of them is an abnormal sign.  See the above images of mine. Outside and inside appearance. 

Some high-grade agarwood may also appear pitch-black all over due to its high oil content, and the oil lines may not be visible. If you have not tried agarwood before, do not touch these.  Very risky, I could not trust myself either as I could be fooled just like you. I am still learning every day.

In this case, you can judge its authenticity by its weight (usually under 40g for a bracelet). Remember, this type of agarwood is generally heavy enough to sink in water, and its price is also very high

What have I learnt?

Agarwood has a long history and a strong appeal, but the market is full of fakes that can easily fool beginners. Many “agarwood” products are made to look and smell impressive, but they aren’t the real thing. Common tricks include injecting oil under pressure, dyeing the wood pitch-black, or using ordinary wood soaked in scented mixtures and steamed to make it heavy.

Here’s the key point: very dark color or an intense smell is often a warning sign, not proof of quality. Real agarwood has a gentle, layered scent that comes alive at certain temperatures. Its natural oil patterns are uneven and organic—sometimes absent altogether in the highest-grade pieces, which can be extremely dense. Weight is also a clue: genuine agarwood bracelets or malas usually weigh under 40g, while fakes are often much heavier because of artificial densification.

If you’re new to agarwood, hands-on experience is your best teacher. Start with small chips and burn them to learn the scent of the real thing. This will train your senses to recognize the authentic aroma and feel, which counterfeits can’t truly copy.

In short: be careful, learn before you buy, and don’t be fooled by claims of “top quality at the lowest price.” Trust your knowledge and your senses. Every real piece of agarwood is rare and special—worth taking the time to find and appreciate.