Complete Guide to Types of Fake Agarwood: How to Identify Medicinal Agarwood, Oil-Soaked, Weight-Added, and Line-Painted Fakes

Key Points

• Fake agarwood falls into four major categories by method: medicinal agarwood relies on "boiling, steaming, and dyeing," oil-soaked relies on "high-pressure oil injection," weight-added relies on "lead injection and grout filling," and line-painted relies on "artificially drawn lines."
• A September 2025 investigation by CCTV's "Financial Survey" showed that high-pressure oil injection into white wood has become an industry chain, with fakes selling for about one-tenth the price of natural genuine goods.
• Oil-soaked, oil-pressed, and line-painted fakes share three common flaws: oil grime accumulated at the holes, a single sharp upfront aroma, and color fading or swelling when soaked in water.
• "Sinking grade" is not proof of safety—oil-injected material, weight-added material, and Hua qinan can all sink; sinking-grade fakes are more expensive and more deceptive than floating fakes.
• Don't judge high-value goods from photos: if unsure, call 400-809-1913, or visit the store for free authentication; the ¥9.9 public-benefit authentication is available long-term.

1. Medicinal agarwood: the oldest fake, "pitch-black" wood boiled from miscellaneous timber

Medicinal agarwood is the earliest-exposed type of fake agarwood. In a 2018 People's Daily Online Arts Channel article "A Comprehensive View of Agarwood Collecting," agarwood dealer Hu Xiaopeng put it bluntly: counterfeiters first soak ordinary miscellaneous wood in ponds until black, boil and steam it with spices, then add artificial essence similar to agarwood's fragrance. The finished product is "all pitch-black, with no grain at all, made into beads that all sink, with the stinking fragrance of low-quality cosmetics."

This type of goods flowed out of medicinal-material markets in early years, hence the name "medicinal agarwood." In a 2014 CCTV news investigation into fake medicinal agarwood, market vendors were blunt: "It's agarwood wood, but without agarwood oil, so we added sesame oil to soak it." The reporter sent six samples for testing; the Institute of Medicinal Plant Development, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences, tested them according to the Chinese Pharmacopoeia, and four failed to meet standards and could not be used as raw material for Chinese medicine.

Identification steps, three in total:

1. Look at the grain.Genuine agarwood's oil lines vary in depth and run naturally; medicinal agarwood is uniformly black throughout, like a stick of ink, with no resinous grain at all.
2. Smell it.Medicinal agarwood smells of cosmetic essence—sharp, sweet, and suffocating; genuine agarwood smells clear and subtle when raw, develops layered changes when heated, and has a cool finish.
3. Burn a little.Take a scrap piece and light it: genuine agarwood smoke is light-colored, soft, and not stinging to the eyes; medicinal agarwood smoke is black and stinging, with a chemical and scorched smell.

2. Oil-soaked and oil-pressed: currently the most circulated type on the market

This is the most common fake agarwood method today. The approach uses white wood with extremely low oil content as a base, injected under high pressure with essence oils to simulate the appearance of high-oil agarwood. A September 2026 market analysis article by China Economic Net summarized its characteristics well: the aroma is intense right out of the box, but after wearing for a while the surface oils evaporate and the beads quickly lose their fragrance,black oil grime tends to accumulate at the bead holes。

CCTV's September 2025 "Financial Survey" investigation went further: in counterfeit workshops in Guangdong and Fujian, workers boil and soak wood in essential oils, polish to add weight, and even inject ordinary white wood with artificial oil paste under high pressure to imitate the texture of high-oil sinking grade; merchants can also add essence to customize scents on demand, even guaranteeing "the smell will never fade." Oil-pressed and oil-injected bracelets sold in some hidden venues in Putian cost only one-tenth the price of natural genuine goods.

Identification steps:

1. Look at the hole opening.Shine a strong light on the inner wall of the bead's hole: on oil-soaked material the oil only floats on the surface, and dark brown oil grime accumulates at the hole openings and crevices that cannot be wiped or washed off.
2. Look at the oil lines.Oil-soaked material has a "dead black" or overly uniform color, with blurry oil-line boundaries, lacking the "oil penetrating into the wood" seepage feel of natural agarwood.
3. Test the volatility.Wear it for a week or seal it for a few days: the fragrance of oil-soaked material drops off a cliff, leaving only a wood smell in the end; natural material loses fragrance slowly and becomes more lustrous the more it is handled.
4. Soak in water.Wipe the surface with a water-soaked cotton swab; if the water clearly changes color and becomes cloudy, there are dyes and surface oil paste.

3. Weight padding: "adding material" into the wood

The purpose of weight-padded types is not to "look like" but to be "heavy"—because the market prices by the gram, and the heavier it is, the more it looks like good material. There are three methods:

• Lead injection, cement filling: Injecting metal or heavy objects into the holes or interior of the wood, specifically to pass off as sinking-grade material. In earlier years this was mostly seen in raw materials and hand-held pieces.
• High-pressure compressionCompressing oil and wood together to increase density to a sinking effect, which also gives off a faint fragrance. To pursue the black color of high-grade agarwood, asphalt is sometimes even used to darken it. In that 2018 People's Daily Online report, the industry jokingly called this kind of material "pangdahai"—it swells up after soaking in water overnight. This material usually appears as wood logs or hand-held pieces and is rarely made into beads, because beads easily reveal flaws.
• Inlay weighting: Carvings and hand-held pieces are hollowed out and filled with heavy objects, then sealed so that nothing can be seen from the outside.

Identification steps:

1. Weigh it in the hand.For agarwood of the same volume, weight-padded material is "dead heavy," with a stiff, lifeless feel; natural agarwood is "warmly heavy in the hand," not slamming into the hand.
2. Compare density.If the whole piece sinks but parts (such as an edge cut) do not sink, or the weight distribution is uneven, there must be something fishy.
3. Soak in water.After several hours of soaking, compressed material swells in volume and layers rise on the surface with water coming out; natural material shows no obvious deformation when soaked (but will briefly lose fragrance and needs to be dried in the shade promptly).
4. Listen to the sound.Tap two beads lightly together: pressure-treated material sounds dull and dead, while natural material sounds relatively crisp.

4. Drawn lines: the "oil lines" that are drawn on

Drawn-line material is made by using pens, brushes, and other tools to manually paint oil lines onto the surface of white wood or low-oil material, imitating the grain of resin formation. In earlier years it was called "tech agarwood"; today the techniques have been upgraded, with new methods such as simulated drawn oil lines and low-temperature penetration appearing. The appearance of these fakes is highly realistic, and ordinary consumers find it very hard to tell them apart with the naked eye alone -- this is an industry trend named in a 2026 article by China Economic Net.

Identification steps:

1. Look at the direction.Drawn lines are "painted": the lines are too smooth, too even, too symmetrical, even left-right symmetrical; natural oil lines follow the wood grain and the patterns of resin formation, with uneven thickness and natural interruptions.
2. Look at penetration.The oil in natural agarwood "grows" within the wood, with corresponding structures on cross-sections, pore walls, and deep inside cracks; drawn lines exist only on the surface, and scraping the surface reveals white wood.
3. Look when wet.Wipe once with a slightly damp cloth: the artificial dye of drawn-line material may blur and fade; the color of natural material remains stable.

5. Two kinds of "impostors": other woods passed off as agarwood and doctored material

Besides the four categories of "pure fakes" above, there are two more types of goods that sit between real and fake but are just as deceptive.

Hua qinan passed off as agarwood.Hua qinan is a vine plant of the genus Bauhinia in the Fabaceae family (order Fabales) and has nothing to do with agarwood; its surface has natural pigment patterns that resemble agarwood oil lines. The Baidu Baike entry for "Hua qinan" states clearly: its patterns are formed by natural pigment deposits, not resin oil lines, and it has no obvious odor itself. It is high in density, and most raw logs sink directly in water -- unscrupulous merchants pass it off as "sinking-grade agarwood" or "sinking-grade qinan," asking thousands or even tens of thousands of yuan per piece.

Doctored material.This plays on the one-character difference between "agarwood wood" and "agarwood": agarwood wood with very little resin formation is polished at high speed (industry slang: "high polish"), causing a tiny amount of oil to seep out and gather on the surface, making it look oily and lustrous. It does carry a faint scent itself, but its resin formation is extremely low, and its value is orders of magnitude below that of true agarwood. In a 2018 People's Daily Online report, Hu Xiaopeng put it bluntly: "Agarwood wood itself has no collectible or investment value."

6. A comparison table: quick reference for the four major categories of fake agarwood

Seven: an example of a real in-store appraisal

Last winter, incense friend Xiao Zhao sent a 16mm string of “Dalahan sinking-grade old material,” saying he grabbed it in a livestream: original price 12,000, welfare price 3,800. The shopkeeper went through the process: first weigh it — a wild sinking-grade string of the same size feels “heavy” in the hand, this one feels “crushing,” dead weight. Then shine a strong light at the holes — all six beads had a ring of dark brown oil residue on the hole walls; he wiped three times with a cotton swab dipped in alcohol, the color came off, the residue did not. Next, soak it in water: it sat in warm water for half an hour, a layer of oil floated on the surface, and the water turned cloudy. Finally, he scraped off a bit of surface powder and lit it: the smoke was gray-black, and a cloying synthetic-fragrance smell hit him right in the face.

The conclusion was clear: high-pressure oil-injected Aquilaria sinensis, jargon for “tech goods.” Xiao Zhao asked whether it could be salvaged; the shopkeeper was blunt: this kind of string has no value for handling and playing with; once the oil volatilizes, it is just a string of white wood beads — return it while the platform's after-sales period is still open. He later succeeded in returning it, and came back to tell the shopkeeper: “It was 3,800 cheap, but the tuition was 8,800.” The shopkeeper remembers that line to this day —The cost of fake agarwood can be unbelievably low; don't leave the door open for fakes with a “bargain-hunting” mindset.

Eight: general screening: for any agarwood, pass these three tests first

No matter how good the story the other party tells, go through this order:

1. Smell: smell once at room temperature, once after warming it in your hand, and once more on a heater. Natural agarwood behaves differently each time and has layers; synthetic-fragrance goods smell the same all three times, sharp at first and then dull.
2. Look: look at the direction of the oil lines, look at penetration, and look at the places that “can't hide” — holes and gaps. Natural creations are never perfectly symmetrical.
3. Test: soak in water to check for color loss and deformation; burn to check smoke and ash. For destructive tests, use edge scraps; don't cut into the main piece.

A final reminder on compliance: agarwood belongs to the genus Aquilaria in the family Thymelaeaceae, and wild populations are listed in CITES Appendix II; cross-border trade requires a permit certificate for customs clearance. Goods from proper channels have traceable origins and documents you can produce—Merchants who dare to lay their sources open have already filtered out half the risk.For the principles of resin formation and regional characteristics, you can refer to"Agarwood Identification"and"Five Pitfalls for Beginners"together.

If you're unsure once the goods arrive, mail them to the store, or call400-809-1913first to describe the characteristics to the shopkeeper; in-store appraisal is free, and the ¥9.9 charity appraisal is available long-term—Don't let fakes grow on you—that's when it really burns money.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the most common type of fake agarwood?

Ranked by current market circulation, oil-soaked/oil-pressed types are the most common; a September 2025 investigation by CCTV's "Financial Survey" showed they have formed an industry chain from production to covert sales. Next are line-drawn materials and flower qinan(kyara) and other woods passed off as agarwood; medicated agarwood is the oldest type and still exists in the low-end market. What they share: a stuffy smell after long smelling, floating oil on the surface, and failing heat tests.

Is sinking-grade agarwood always genuine?

Quite the opposite. Oil injection, lead injection, and high-pressure compression can all make fakes sink; flower qinan(kyara) raw wood has high density and naturally sinks—exactly the hardest-hit area for livestream "sinking grade" talk. Sinking only means high density; it says nothing about authenticity or quality—among genuine agarwood, top-grade qinan(kyara) with high oil content is mostly semi-sinking.

What remedies are there if I buy fake agarwood?

Preserve evidence immediately: order, chat records, product page screenshots. Then pursue after-sales: 7-day no-reason return, platform customer service intervention, consumer association complaint. If confirmed as oil-injected or line-drawn chemical goods, we don't recommend "polishing it to see if it can be restored"—once the surface oil evaporates, it's just white wood with no polishing value; cutting losses promptly beats everything.

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