Loose diamonds are known for their special property to scratch anything. The hardness of the mineral is determined by the Mohs scale which grades minerals from softness to hardness, diamonds being the hardest natural mineral on earth. The minerals are arranged on a scale from 1 to 10 with talc being the softest at 1 and diamond being the hardest at 10. While we are given the Hollywood ideal that only diamond can cut glass, the truth is that quartz can scratch a glass plate. That’s because glass is rated a 5.5 on Mohs scale while quartz is rated a 7. Since diamond is rated a 10, it can scratch or cut any other mineral on the Mohs scale.

All loose diamonds have this quality of hardness. In fact to cut a diamond, one has to use a diamond saw or a laser. The same hardness that makes it highly prized, makes it hard to cut too. It also gives diamonds a large number of applications.

Diamonds can be used for industrial cutting tools, polishing metals, video disc needles, and drilling. Typically, the best quality diamonds are reserved for jewelry with the poorer quality diamonds used for industrial purposes. Though diamonds are hard, they can also be very brittle causing them to fracture if improperly maintained. Just because diamonds are considered unusually hard, does not mean they are indestructible. So, if you have diamond jewelry or loose diamonds, take care to keep it from being unduly stressed in different directions. This can cause a split along the crystal’s different faces.