Hey everyone, today I wanted to share my little experiment on garnet hardness. You know, I’ve always been fascinated by gemstones, and garnet, with its beautiful deep red color, has always been one of my favorites. But I got curious – just how tough is this stone?
So, I started digging around the internet. I found out that the hardness of a stone is measured on something called the Mohs scale. Apparently, garnet falls somewhere between 6.5 and 7.5 on this scale. Sounds pretty tough, right? But what does that really mean in the real world?
I decided to do a little test of my own. I took a piece of garnet that I had (it was from an old piece of jewelry) and tried to scratch it with a few different things I had lying around the house.
- First, I tried scratching it with my fingernail. No surprise there, that didn’t do anything.
- Next, I tried a copper coin, since I read somewhere that copper has a hardness of about 3 on the Mohs scale. Still, the garnet was untouched.
- Then I got a little braver and tried a steel knife, which is supposed to be around 5.5 on the scale. Still nothing! That garnet was holding strong.
- Finally, I grabbed a quartz crystal from my rock collection. Quartz is a 7 on the Mohs scale. I carefully tried to scratch the garnet with the quartz, and guess what? I started to see some very faint scratches!
So, what did I learn from this little experiment? Well, it confirmed what I read online. Garnet is a pretty durable stone. It can withstand everyday wear and tear without getting scratched easily. It took something as hard as quartz to make a mark on it. It is also resistant to scratching, and it does not have obvious cleavage.
Of course, this wasn’t a super scientific test. I just wanted to see for myself how tough garnet really is. And I’m happy to report that it’s a pretty tough cookie! It made me appreciate this beautiful gemstone even more. And it also depends on the variety.
That’s all for my little garnet adventure. Hope you found it interesting!
