Property of Hardness in Gems

ANOTHER property by means of which one may distinguish the various gems from each other is hardness. By hardness is meant the ability to resist scratching. The term "hardness" should not be taken to include toughness, yet it is frequently so understood by the public. Most hard stones are more or less brittle and would shatter if struck a sharp blow. Other hard stones have a pronounced cleavage and split easily in certain directions. True hardness, then, implies merely the ability to resist abrasion (i.e., scratching).

Now, not only is hardness very necessary in a precious stone in order that it may receive and keep a fine polish, but the degree in which it possesses hardness as compared with other materials of known hardness may be made use of in identifying it.

No scale of absolute hardness has ever come into general use, but the mineralogist Mohs many years ago proposed the following relative scale, which has been used very largely:

Mohs's Scale of Hardness. Diamond, the hardest of all gems, was rated as 10 by Mohs. This rating was purely arbitrary. Mohs might have called it 100 or 1 with equal reason. It was merely in order to represent the different degrees of hardness by numbers, that he picked out the number 10 to assign to diamonds. Sapphire (and ruby) Mohs called 9, as being next to diamond in hardness. True topaz (precious topaz) he called 8. Quartz (amethyst and quartz "topaz") was given the number 7. Felspar (moonstone) was rated 6, the mineral apatite 5, fluorspar 4, calcite 3, gypsum 2, and talc 1.

It may be said here that any mineral in this series, that is of higher number than any other, will scratch the other. Thus diamond (10) will scratch all the others, sapphire (9) will scratch any but diamond, topaz (8) will scratch any but diamond and sapphire, and so on.

It must not be thought that there is any regularity in the degrees of hardness as expressed by these numbers. The intervals in hardness are by no means equal to the differences in number. Thus the interval between diamond and sapphire, although given but one number of difference, is probably greater than that between sapphire (9) and talc (1). The numbers thus merely give us an order of hardness. Many gem minerals are, of course, missing from this list, and most of the minerals from 5 down to 1 are not gem minerals at all. Few gem materials are of less hardness than 7, for any mineral less hard than quartz (7) will inevitably be worn and dulled in time by the ordinary road dust, which contains much powdered quartz.

In testing a gem for hardness the problem consists in finding out which of the above minerals is most nearly equal in hardness to the unknown stone. Any gem that was approximately equal in hardness to a true topaz (8) would also be said to be of hardness 8. Thus spinel is of about the same hardness as topaz and hence is usually rated as 8 in hardness. Similarly opal, moonstone, and turquoise are of about the same hardness as felspar and are all rated 6.