Your cart is empty.
Your cart is empty.Hardness is an important and quantifiable physical characteristic of a mineral and in your effort to identify an unknown mineral, the hardness, if known, combined with other properties, can narrow your search to just a handful of possibilities. Simply scratch a smooth surface of your unknown mineral with the picks of various indicated hardness. As an example, if a No. 5 pick scratches the mineral, but a No. 4 pick does not, then your mineral hardness is 4.5. Then compare this against a table of minerals listing hardness values to aid in identifying the unknown mineral. The Deluxe Hardness Pick Set from Mineralab is unique in that, unlike other mineral hardness test tool that use minerals or crystal points, Mineralab picks are made of metals and alloys of hardness values equal to 2 through 9 on Mohs hardness scale. Because the picks are made of metal, they are easily ground to sharp points which will not break off and which can be easily sharpened. Included in the Mineralab's Deluxe Hardness Pick Set: * Four double-ended picks with eight points comprising 2 and 3, 4 and 5, 6 and 7, 8 and 9 on Mohs' hardness scale. * High quality brass pinch vises. * A glass plate (hardness of about 5.5) which, when scratched, quickly distinguishes hard from soft minerals. * A second hardness plate with a hardness value of 3 5. * A white streak plate for testing a mineral's streak color. * A magnet to test magnetic rocks such as magnetite and pyrrhotite. * A 100 grit polishing stone to keep the points sharp. * An attractive, mahogany-finished and compact wooden case. * Hardness Table for 300 minerals * Complete usage instructions. Other Features: * All points are stamped with the indicated hardness value, and the pick body is color coded for quickly finding the desired pick. * Hardness points can be easily and inexpensively replaced without having to replace the pick bodies. * 1 year warranty.
Amy
Reviewed in the United States on July 30, 2024
Cheap plastic box and inaccurate testers. #8 and #9 appear to be inverted. Very low quality.
Bert
Reviewed in the United States on November 11, 2022
You have 1 job. And you failed. Wasting much of my time to figure out #8 and #9 we're in each other's spots. How do you mess up like that on a tool that's made for testing? Absolute joke of a company
Leyla Fowler
Reviewed in the United States on February 8, 2020
This is a great little set, everything you need to do a hardness test.
jordouellet
Reviewed in the United States on March 7, 2019
Been using quite a lot. Good quality!
Because it matters
Reviewed in the United States on May 29, 2018
Let me copy and paste:Product Features: "High quality brass pinch vises."Product Description: " * High quality brass pinch vises. * "Here's the deal- They are not BRASS. Although, likely just as functional, not what is described.
Jim H7uy
Reviewed in the United States on June 13, 2014
This is a complete set of picks that is well made and looks nice. It's kind of bulky for field work because of the nice wood case. The scratch plates for testing streak are small and thin. They will have to be replaced as they get used and dirty, but I bought the kit for the picks which work very well. Picks are a great but expensive. Yes, you make/use cheaper test picks by collecting rocks of the correct hardness. But a pick gives you better control and the ability to scratch smaller samples than using a mineral chunk. Also, some minerals are harder one direction than another but a pick does not have that problem.
David anfinrud
Reviewed in the United States on March 26, 2011
A nice tool to help determine hardness of minerals. We often use knife and coins for rough hardness determination. Here is a way to get hardness of 2 to 9 in one easy package. Having the extra items of a streak plate and sharpening plate will allow the small picks to be used over and over again. The wooden box holding it together means everything is one place. Easy to find and not have to search for the tools in a drawer. Also comes with a nice list of 250 minerals and the range of their hardness. I did not know that Ice and Mica had the same Hardness range. 1.0 to 6.0 range. The chart is setup to list the hardness by Name or by Hardness. So you have two lists organized in a way to quickly find what you are looking for.
Goldeagle
Reviewed in the United States on June 20, 2006
This Mohs' harndess pick set is made by Mineral Lab. The picture looks much bigger than the real set itself. You can get it cheaper here at Amazon.com than from Mineral Lab. Postage is a little bit stiff for such a small set. Comes with four metal pens with two hardness picks on each end (i.e. 2 & 3; 4 & 5; 6 & 7; 8 & 9). The 2 & 3 and 8 & 9 are almost worthless since I use mostly the middle two. Not the easy things to use. You have to keep the pick sharp and then you really have to press down to test the stones. Also, the numbers on the picks are difficult to read. I kept getting confused the 4 with the 7. You can almost buy one set and make it into two sets by purchasing extra replacement points from Mineral Lab and then turning them into two sets. The customer service of Amateur Geologist was extremely helpful but that of Mineral Lab was not quite as friendly. Is it really worth the money? It is really hard to say. I think it should sell at around the $ 45 to % 50 range. Also, the sharpener comes with the kit is way too small. However, this is the only hardness pick set available in the States.
Recommended Products
