Diamond hardness - Quick facts

It is really no wonder that diamond got its name from the Greek word „adamas“ meaning indestructible. Diamond is the hardest substance that can be found in nature, its hardness is for instance 140 times the hardness of sapphire or ruby. In fact, diamond is the hardest known natural material on the Mohs scale of mineral hardness where it has the ultimate value of 10.

Diamond's remarkable hardness is one of the main reasons for its supreme physical and chemical properties though this does not mean that diamond is completely indestructible as it still needs to be preserved from accidents during its installation into certain jewelry setting.

The purer the diamonds are the harder they are which means that the purest diamonds are the hardest diamonds. The crystalline perfection is also one of the main factors that determine the hardness of diamond; diamonds that have the direction along the longest diagonal of the cubic diamond lattice are the hardest diamonds.

The hardest diamonds have been found in New South Wales, Australia. These diamonds are very small and are mostly used to polish other diamonds.

The hardest diamonds are often characterized with the single-stage crystal growth. The single-stage crystal growth means there are less inclusions and flaws which automatically means better hardness.

Today's science has made it possible to improve hardness of the diamonds in the lab by several different high pressure and high temperature methods.

The hardness of the diamond is not the same as diamond's toughness because toughness strictly refers to material's ability to resist breakage from forceful impact.