{"id":66,"date":"2015-11-18T01:53:31","date_gmt":"2015-11-18T01:53:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/myjewelrysource.com\/gemstone-jewelry\/?p=66"},"modified":"2018-04-05T16:12:24","modified_gmt":"2018-04-05T23:12:24","slug":"an-introduction-to-gemstones-part-3-durability-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/myjewelrysource.com\/gemstone-jewelry\/gemstones\/an-introduction-to-gemstones-part-3-durability-2.html","title":{"rendered":"An Introduction to Gemstones- Part 3- Durability"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Besides being <a title=\"An Introduction to Gemstones \u2013 Part 2- Rarity\" href=\"https:\/\/www.myjewelrysource.com\/gemstone-jewelry\/index.php\/gemstone\/an-introduction-to-gemstones-part-2-rarity.html\" target=\"_blank\">rare<\/a> and <a title=\"An Introduction to Gemstones- Part 1- Beauty\" href=\"https:\/\/www.myjewelrysource.com\/gemstone-jewelry\/index.php\/gemstone\/introduction.html\" target=\"_blank\">beautiful<\/a>, gemstones also need to be <strong>durable<\/strong>.   There are many beautiful things in this world but most are not  durable.  Examples are a flower, a butterfly, or a elaborately decorated  wedding  cake (or for me, a plate of fresh chocalate chip cookies). A  gem should  last and hold its beauty for the lifetime of the wearer and  beyond.<\/p>\n<p><strong>One of the factors<\/strong> used to measure gemstone   durability is the Mohs scale of hardness. Hardness measures resistance   to scratches. Since a diamond can scratch every other mineral, it is   rated the highest on the scale with a value of 10 on the hardness scale.   The next hardest gem is corundum, which are sapphires and rubies.  These  gems are rated a 9. You might think that the difference in  hardness  between a diamond and a sapphire is very close because one is  rated a 10  and one is rated a 9. But, a diamond is actually about 140  times harder  than a sapphire. As a general rule of thumb, gemstones  with a hardness  of 7 or greater, including ruby, topaz, <a title=\"Aquamarine Rings\" href=\"https:\/\/www.myjewelrysource.com\/aquamarine-rings.htm\" target=\"_blank\">aquamarine<\/a>, <a title=\"Tourmaline Rings\" href=\"https:\/\/www.myjewelrysource.com\/pink_tourmaline_ring.htm\" target=\"_blank\">tourmaline<\/a>,   among others, are good choices for a ring or bracelet. For softer  gems,  like pearl or apatite, it\u2019s better to enjoy them in earring,  pendant,  or necklace form.<\/p>\n<div style=\"width: 280px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.myjewelrysource.com\/blue-sapphire-ring\/gr5985-8mm-cushion-cut-sapphire-diamond-ring.htm\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\" \" title=\"3.62 ctw Ceylon Cushion Cut Sapphire &amp; Diamond Ring in 14k white gold\" src=\"https:\/\/www.myjewelrysource.com\/images-rings\/sapphire\/gr5985-cushion-cut-ceylong-sapphire-diamond-halo-ring.jpg\" alt=\"3.62 ctw Ceylon Cushion Cut Sapphire &amp; Diamond Ring in 14k white gold\" width=\"270\" height=\"169\" \/><\/a><p class=\"wp-caption-text\">Sapphires excel in durability with a rating of 9 on the Mohs scale of hardness<\/p><\/div>\n<p>Hardness is not the only factor that contributes to a gemstone\u2019s durability; <strong>another factor is toughness<\/strong>.   Toughness means resistance to chips, nicks, cracks or breaks.  Toughness  and hardness are actually very different. Toughness is rated  from  exceptional to poor. One of the toughest gems is jade and one of  the least tough gems is amber.  So if you were to drop a piece of jade  on the ground, it would likely  not break, but with the amber, it would  be another story. It could  easily break into many pieces. There are  some other considerations when  evaluating the durability of a gem.<\/p>\n<p>This blog is dedicated to discussing everything gemstone.  We plan to   cover every aspect of gemstone mining,  gemstone treatments, gemstone   jewelry, and use of gemstones in <a title=\"Gemstone Engagement Rings\" href=\"https:\/\/www.myjewelrysource.com\/gemstone-engagement-ring.htm\" target=\"_blank\">gemstone engagement rings<\/a>&#8211; a wonderful alternative to diamond engagement rings.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Besides being rare and beautiful, gemstones also need to be durable. There are many beautiful things in this world but most are not durable. Examples are a flower, a butterfly, or a elaborately decorated wedding cake (or for me, a plate of fresh chocalate chip cookies). A gem should last and hold its beauty for [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8,9],"tags":[42,44],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/myjewelrysource.com\/gemstone-jewelry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/myjewelrysource.com\/gemstone-jewelry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/myjewelrysource.com\/gemstone-jewelry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/myjewelrysource.com\/gemstone-jewelry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/myjewelrysource.com\/gemstone-jewelry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=66"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/myjewelrysource.com\/gemstone-jewelry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":649,"href":"https:\/\/myjewelrysource.com\/gemstone-jewelry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66\/revisions\/649"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/myjewelrysource.com\/gemstone-jewelry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=66"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/myjewelrysource.com\/gemstone-jewelry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=66"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/myjewelrysource.com\/gemstone-jewelry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=66"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}