Most “Vijaysar” isn’t.
Here’s how to tell.
This category has a counterfeit problem, and it’s worth being blunt about it. If you’re paying a few hundred rupees for a “Vijaysar” glass online, the odds are not in your favour.
Four things to check — on any glass, including ours
The water should turn amber
Genuine heartwood colours the water a warm reddish-amber overnight. If your water stays clear, the wood isn’t what it claims to be. If it turns a flat, even, artificial-looking colour immediately, that may be dye.
The surface should be bare
Heavy polish or lacquer is a warning sign — it’s often used to hide the wood underneath. Real heartwood is left unpolished so you can see the grain.
The colour should run all the way through
Fakes are frequently a thin veneer or a stain over cheap wood. Genuine heartwood is dark through its whole thickness.
The seller should be able to tell you where it grew
Most can’t. That’s the real tell.
What we do
We grow it.
Our own plantation outside Visakhapatnam, roughly 12,000 trees, some more than sixty years old.
We can trace it.
Every glass comes from wood we can point to on our own land.
We leave it bare.
Unpolished, untreated — the wood is the proof.
We harvest selectively.
Slowly, and we replant more than we take.