In the elite circles of Middle Eastern Oud collectors and Japanese Kōdō masters, evaluating a piece of agarwood often comes down to a deceptively simple trial: dropping it into a glass of pure water.
Wood is naturally buoyant. So why does a genuine piece of Kynam (Kyara) plummet to the bottom of a glass like a stone? The answer is not magic; it is the pure physics of specific gravity and the biological miracle of the Aquilaria tree's oleoresin.
The Physics of the Sink
To sink in water, an object must possess a specific gravity greater than 1.0 (the density of water).
Specific Gravity (Water) = 1.0The white, uninfected wood fibers of the Aquilaria tree are highly porous and light, with a specific gravity of roughly 0.4. However, the dark, aromatic oleoresin produced by the tree is incredibly dense, possessing a specific gravity greater than 1.0.
The Density Spectrum
When we process raw agarwood blocks in our facility, we are essentially cutting away the light, useless white wood to isolate the heavy, resin-dense core. The final behavior of the wood in water is determined entirely by the ratio of wood fibers to oleoresin. Here is how the global market categorizes this gravity.
Floating Grade
Resin < 25%: The buoyant white wood fibers dominate the structure. This is standard commercial agarwood. It sits high on the water's surface.
Half-Sinking
Resin 40% - 60%: A premium grade where the resin content is high enough to pull the wood below the surface, but not dense enough to touch the bottom.
Sinking Grade (Kynam)
Resin 80% - 95%+: The pinnacle. The dense oleoresin completely saturates the pores of the wood. The specific gravity exceeds 1.0, and it sinks immediately.
Raw blocks in our sorting facility. You can visually see the extreme density of the dark resin crushing the lighter wood fibers.
The Dark Side of the Water Test
Because "Sinking Grade" is synonymous with astronomical prices, it is the most counterfeited metric in the agarwood trade. Unscrupulous suppliers have developed ingenious ways to manipulate the specific gravity of cheap wood to fool the water test.
- Lead Injection: Counterfeiters drill microscopic holes into cheap beads, insert tiny lead weights, and seal them with wood dust and glue. The bead sinks, but it is toxic.
- High-Pressure Oil Boiling: Standard white wood is placed into high-pressure vacuum chambers and boiled in synthetic, heavy oils or shoe polish. The artificial oil forcibly fills the pores, adding unnatural weight.
- Wax Sealing: Beads are coated in heavy industrial wax to add mass and create an artificial sheen.
During the mechanical shaping process, the true density of the wood is revealed. Our artisans rely strictly on natural mass.
The Factory-Direct Guarantee
The only way to guarantee that a sinking grade piece of Kynam is authentic is absolute transparency in processing. As a direct manufacturer, we witness the wood from raw log to finished bead.
Finished beads ready for collectors. The gravity of these beads comes entirely from the ancient jungle, not a laboratory.
Our Kynam and premium agarwood products undergo 100% mechanical cutting and natural friction buffing. We introduce absolutely zero foreign weight—no lead, no injected oils, no wax. When one of our Kynam beads sinks in water, you are witnessing the true, unadulterated weight of centuries-old jungle oleoresin.