Sorting: The Sixth Step in the Journey of Oud

When the pieces become clean and dried and stable, the evaluation stage begins with the first of its steps: sorting. For before the pieces are graded into grades, they must be arranged and the similar ones gathered together by type, size, and form. In this article we address sorting as the step that organizes the pieces and paves the way for all that follows of evaluation and grading.

What is sorting and why does it come first in evaluation?

Sorting is arranging the pieces and gathering the similar ones together before evaluating them precisely. For after drying, the pieces are mixed and varied in type, size, and form, and sorting undoes this mixing and sets each homogeneous group on its own. And it comes first in the evaluation stage because it makes the following steps — of scent testing, grading, and weighing — more precise and easier.

For a mixed heap of pieces cannot be graded fairly; the small chips would be compared with the large pieces, and the types with one another. But when they are sorted first, each later evaluation takes place within a homogeneous group in which like is compared with like.

On what basis are the pieces sorted?

Sorting rests on several visible criteria: the type or origin, the size of the piece, and its form — whether it is small chips, large pieces, or pieces of a particular shape. And these are criteria that can be perceived by sight and hand without need of a deep test, and so they suit the sorting whose aim is quick arrangement, not a final judgment.

Sorting paves the way for grading, it does not replace it

It is important to distinguish between sorting and grading. For sorting gathers the pieces into homogeneous groups by visible criteria, while grading arranges the pieces within these groups on the ladder of quality by finer criteria such as the character of the scent and the density of resin. Sorting says: "these pieces are of a close type and size"; and grading says: "and this one is of a higher grade than that."

And so sorting is a preparatory step, not fully evaluative. For it organizes the road before the true evaluation that begins with scent testing and then grading, and makes each of them clearer and fairer.

From sorting to scent testing

When the pieces are arranged in homogeneous groups, they become ready for the following step that looks to their essence, not their exterior: scent testing. For sorting relied on what is perceived by the eye and the hand, while scent testing enters into what is perceived only by the nose: the character of the piece and its depth.

And so sorting has opened the door of the evaluation stage and arranged the pieces for it. And in the following axis of this journey we move to the seventh step: scent testing.