If you want to create long lasting, high quality jewelry then the Moh’s hardness scale is going to be important to you.
I love gathering tips and tricks for about as many things as I can to take my jewelry up a notch. When I discovered this one, I knew I had to keep the Moh’s hardness scale list handy in my tool box.
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Scale
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Hardness
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Material
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1
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Can be scratched easily with a fingernail
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Sulfur: 1 – 1-1/2
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2
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Can be scratched with fingernail
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Amber: 2 – 3
Ivory: 2 – 4 |
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3
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Can be scratched with coin
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Pearl: 3 – 4
Coral: 3 – 4 Malachite: 3-1/2 – 4 |
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4
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Can be scratched easily with a knife; cannot scratch glass
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Rhodochrosite: 4
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5
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Can be scratched with a knife; can just scratch glass
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Lapis Lazuli: 5 – 6
Turquoise: 5 – 6 Opal: 5-1/2 – 6-1/2 |
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6
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Can be scratched with a steel file;
easily scratches window/bottle glass
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Moonstone: 6 – 6 1/2
Tanzanite: 6-1/2 – 7 Peridot: 6-1/2 – 7 Zircon: 6-1/2 – 7-1/2 |
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7
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Easily scratches metal, glass and softer stones
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Quartz, Citrine, and Amethyst: 7
Tourmaline: 7 – 7-1/2 Garnet: 7 – 7-1/2 Emerald: 7-1/2 – 8 |
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8
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Scratches quartz and softer stones
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Topaz: 8
Alexandrite: 8-1/2 |
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9
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Scratches topaz and softer stones
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Ruby: 9
Sapphire: 9 |
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10
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Scratches ruby
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Diamond: 10
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pdf version here
Mohs hardness scale was invented by minerologist Frederick Mohs in 1822 by scratching on different minerals and creating a scale from 1 to 10 and placing minerals within the scale with 1 being the softest and 10 being the hardest.
The Mohs scale is not linear, instead it is successive. For example, a diamond (rated a 10) is 4 times harder than a ruby or a sapphire (rated at 9); the distance between 9 and 10 is greater than the entire scale.
The reason the Mohs scale is especially important to a jewelry designer is because when you are designing a piece you want to think about how often it is to be worn and under what conditions. Are you making a piece that’s meant to be worn every day or for casual wear? Then you probably want to choose stones that are higher up on the scale in the 6 to 10 range.
The other reason using the Moh’s scale is important is because if you use a hard gemstone in combination with a softer one and they are able to bump or rub against each other, the harder stone may damage the softer one over time and that could be very disappointing. Image may be NSFW.
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It’s best to choose stones that are in the same range on the hardness scale. You also might want to tell your customers that the stones you’ve used may need more careful handling. Look at the scale and see that the gemstones between 7 and 10 can scratch the softer stones in the 1 to 6 range.
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