The hardness of stones and its effect on jewellery making.

Just like every other material on earth, each type of gemstone has its own physical properties, its hardness being one of them. The hardness of a stone can also dictate or be a deciding factor, upon the type of pieces a stone is used in. The softer stones will tend not to be used in rings due to them being worn on an exposed part of the body that has a high likelihood of getting knocked and hit.

How a stones hardness is measured. The Mohs scale.

The Mohs scale measures the hardness of minerals on a scale of one (being softest) to ten (being the hardest). It was originally determined by evaluating what the scratch resistance of a mineral was. This was done by seeing what materials could scratch other ones. It was found that Diamond ranked highest as it could only be scratched by other Diamonds. Right is a list of several common minerals and how they are rated on the Mohs scale.