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Hardness gemstones
For every piece of jewelry, we pick the most beautiful of the mentioned precious stones.
Despite the fact our stones are set by master goldsmiths, sadly not all stones can be set in jewelry. This has to do with the hardness of said stones, amongst other things, when our master goldsmith is asked to set a soft stone in hard material there is a chance the stone will be damaged or even breaks.
The various precious stones we display alongside jewelry in our online store are always fit for use in a ring however.
Something a great many people are mistaken by is the difference between a stone’s hardness, and its toughness.
This difference is in fact quite simple.
The hardness of a stone is a deciding factor in the brightness of its sheen (it influences whether scratches will easily appear on the stone), the toughness of a stone is a deciding factor when it comes the chances of a stone breaking or splitting along a fracture plane.
Sadly there is no standardized scale for interpreting the toughness of a stone. It is important to know about your stone’s toughness however, when taking care of the stone you might want to know if it is brittle or will not break at all. For more information on taking care of your precious stones click the link.
Mohs scale of mineral hardness
In order to determine the hardness of a precious stone Mohs scale of mineral hardness was invented. Every precious stone has a specific hardness which is indicated by a number. The higher the number, the harder the stone. A higher level of hardness, then, means a better sheen.
Through field research it was established that by scratching different gems with other precious stones one could determine which stone has the higher hardness. A precious stone with a hardness of 7 on the Mohs scale of mineral hardness may cause scratches on the surface of a stone with a hardness of 6 on the same scale. Vice versa, a stone with a hardness of 5 on the scale will not be hard enough to scratch the surface of a stone with a hardness of 6.
In order to provide a clear overview of different levels of hardness as they occur in the precious stones we offer in our online store, our gemologists created this chart:
| 10 | Diamond | Diamond |
| 9 | Corundum | Sapphire, ruby |
| 8 | Topaz | Topaz zirkonia |
| 7 | Quartz | Tourmaline, Amethyst, Smoky Quartz, Citrine |
| 6 | Feldspar | Peridot, Garnet, Rhodolite |
| 5 | Apatite | |
| 4 | Fluorite | |
| 3 | Calcite | Pearls |
| 2 | Gypsum | |
| 1 | Talc |
Hardness
If you would like to know more about hardness or other qualities of our precious stones, we provide an explanation for every individual stone about, amongst other things: hardness and susceptibility to damage. More information on our range of precious stones can be found here.