Types of Diamond Sawing
Types of materials and hardness.
The hardness of a mineral is one of the most diagnostic and easy
tests to perform in the attempt to identify an unknown mineral.
Hardness is a measure of a mineral's resistance to abrasion and
reflects the atomic structure of a mineral.
A mineral of any given hardness will scratch a mineral of a lower
number. With a systematic approach, you can use minerals of known
hardness to determine the relative hardness of any other mineral.
Aggregate Hardness (Moh's Scale)
Hard
7-9 Flint, some quart.
5-7 Some quartz, river gravel, some granites
3-5 some granites, hard limestones, dolomites.
2-3 soft limestones.
Effect
Harder aggregates require softer diamond bonds. Softer aggregates require
harder bonds. Harder aggregates make the diamond blade cut slower. Softer
aggregates make the blade cut quicker.
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