Mohs Hardness Scale |
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About the Mohs Scale
"The Mohs scale of mineral hardness is based on the ability of one natural sample of mineral to scratch another mineral visibly. The samples of matter used by Mohs are all different minerals. Minerals are pure substances found in nature. Rocks are made up of one or more minerals. As the hardest known naturally occurring substance when the scale was designed, diamonds are at the top of the scale. The hardness of a material is measured against the scale by finding the hardest material that the given material can scratch, and/or the softest material that can scratch the given material. For example, if some material is scratched by apatite but not by fluorite, its hardness on the Mohs scale would fall between 4 and 5. 'Scratching' a material for the purposes of the Mohs scale means creating non-elastic dislocations visible to the naked eye. Frequently, materials that are lower on the Mohs scale can create microscopic, non-elastic dislocations upon materials that have a higher Mohs number. While these microscopic dislocations are permanent and sometimes detrimental to the harder material's structural integrity, they are not considered "scratches" for the determination of a Mohs scale number." - Wikipedia.org
Below you will find two charts containing the Mohs Hardness Scale for many common crystal types. The first chart is
ordered alphabetically by crystal type and the second chart is ordered by hardness in descending order from hard to soft.
You can search our site for any of the crystal types using the search box above. We will update the charts on an ongoing
basis. If you are looking for a stone and it is not here, please contact us and we'll add it.
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