Found out garnet sand is way tougher than I thought

I was reading a paper from the US Geological Survey and it said garnet sand has a hardness of 7.5 on the Mohs scale. That puts it right up there with quartz. I always figured garnets were just pretty red rocks for jewelry, but they actually get crushed up and used for waterjet cutting and sandblasting. Has anyone else been surprised by what a common mineral can do?

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harper_singh184mo ago

Damn, really? So how do they even get garnet sand to be sharp enough for cutting metal without it just turning to dust?

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luna5504mo ago

That's actually a really good question, I had the same thought.

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