Why is the Mohs Scale Important to You as a Jewellery Wearer?
By Gary Hocking Hardness can be tested through scratching so Friederich Mohs devised a scale of hardness from 1- 10. This scale was actually a scale where the softer mineral on the scale could be scratched by the one above it. Most of us are aware that diamond is the hardest gemstone. Diamond is the hardest on the scale and is rated as having a hardness of 10. Let me tell you from a jewellers perspective what that means. I buy some very expensive files perhaps ten times more expensive that what you will buy at your local hardware shop. When I accidentally file a diamond you might think that I have made a big mistake and that I will file a piece of the diamond and make it dull. Well the reverse is the case as the diamond will blunt my expensive files! The next down the hardness scale is Corundum which is what sapphire and ruby are. These gemstones are really the same thing. When a sapphire is red then we call it a ruby. These are nine on the scale. The scale goes all the way down to one
