Why is diamond so hard?

Diamonds have supreme physical properties and hardness is definitely one of them. Diamond's extreme hardness is mainly the result of tightly packed carbon atoms and a very tightly linking covalent bonds.

Diamonds are the hardest substances that can be found in nature (it's no wonder that they got their name from Greek word adamas, meaning indestructible).

How hard are diamonds when compared to other gemstones? The hardness of diamond is 140 times better than the hardness of sapphire or ruby. In fact, in the Mohs scale of mineral hardness diamond has the ultimate value of 10.

Diamond is the hardest substance that can be found in nature but its hardness does not make it totally indestructible which means that the certain care is still needed particularly when installing it into certain jewelry setting.

The hardest diamonds are the ones that have the best purity. The better crystalline perfection means better hardness. The hardest diamonds are the ones that have the direction along the longest diagonal of the cubic diamond lattice. The less inclusions and flaws means better diamond hardness.

Australia has been the home of the hardest diamonds found in nature. The today's science is able to create even harder diamonds in laboratories.