Diamonds are the hardest gemstone known to man, but can they be sharpened enough to cut mirrors?
According to the Mohs Scale, a real diamond is so hard that it can not only scratch mirrors, but it would also cut through the glass. Diamonds are used in many cutting or abrasion tools, including glass cutters.
Read on to learn more about real diamonds, where they’re found, and how hard they really are.
Top Of The Class
When it comes to resistant materials, there are none quite as hard or resilient as a diamond. While some might come close, such as corundum, diamond is in a league of its own and is rated as the hardest material on earth.
These ratings are taking from the Mohs Hardness Scale, the de facto standard for the hardness of materials. This scale runs from one to ten, and diamond is the only material on earth that sits at the top spot.
At the base of the scale is talc, a material that can easily be scratched into dust by a fingernail. In seventh place on the scale is quartz, and it’s at this point that glass is easily scratched by the material in question.
Therefore, it becomes easy to see why diamond, a perfect ten, has the ability to cut glass, and not just scratch it. In fact, there are many more uses for diamonds than just affixing them to a ring or a necklace.
It’s a little-known fact, but only around twenty percent of the world’s diamonds are considered fine enough to be used as gemstones in jewelry. The remaining eighty percent of all these diamonds are used for industrial purposes.
Mostly, these ‘relegated’ diamonds will be used in drills, cutting tools, and abrasive methods. For example, crushed diamonds can be laid into a belt sander to produce an incredibly smooth sanding result.
And yes, I know what you’re thinking, but diamonds certainly can be crushed. The Mohs Hardness Scale relates to the durability of the material in terms of its resistance to scratching.
While a diamond is remarkably resistant, it can still be crushed, smashed, or cleaved if enough pressure is applied. As a material, diamond is actually considerably brittle, and it can be shattered into a thousand pieces with ease.
Diamonds Are The World’s Best Friend
The history of the human race’s interaction with diamonds stretches back some two and a half thousand years. Like many other gemstones in the world (such as sapphires and rubies), diamonds were first discovered in India.
However, they rapidly found their way out of the country, specifically on trade routes, as people one and all began using them for bartering. It took a long while – many centuries, in fact – but before long, diamonds were quite common and being traded among the European elite.
Over time, more diamond sources emerged, with Brazil becoming the world leader, a position it would hold for more than one hundred years. Although, by the nineteenth century and beyond, Africa would become the prominent home of around ninety percent of the world’s diamonds.
The De Beers company held the monopoly on the production of diamonds, having discovered and begun working in some of the world’s biggest mines. In 1866, an enormous diamond source was uncovered in Kimberley, South Africa, but it was stripped clean of diamonds by 1914.
However, De Beers would go on to discover and plunder several more mines around South Africa, ultimately becoming the world’s most popular supplier with ease. In fact, it was De Beers who popularized the slogan: “A Diamond is Forever.”
In order to drive the appeal of the diamond ever higher, De Beers painted the image that a diamond would quite simply be everlasting. The slogan itself was created by a copywriter, Mary Frances Gerety, in 1948, and it has been marked as one of the most recognized slogans in history.
There are no gemstones on this planet quite as popular or readily available as a diamond. These glittering crystal-clear stones feature in almost every piece of fine jewelry you can find, even if the item’s centerpiece is another type of gemstone.
They’re valuable, sought-after, and coveted for their beauty and relative scarcity. Although, as I said, they’re readily available, the finest-quality examples are still among some of the rarest gemstones you can ask for.
However, most diamond mines are decreasing in production levels as time goes on. There’s a distinct possibility that one day in the distant future, every last diamond will have been pulled from the earth.