How Hard Can a Diamond Break From Hydraulic Press?

Diamonds are one of the hardest natural substances on Earth; however, this does not equate to indestructibility.

One misdirected blow from a hammer or hydraulic press can quickly chip and fracture a diamond, rendering it useless and possibly irreparable.

Hydraulic Press Channel on YouTube enjoys crushing and shattering things with their hydraulic press, so they decided to subject a real 1.2-carat diamond to its immense force. Watch their video below and witness its results!

The Hardness of Diamonds

Diamonds are well-known for being among the hardest natural substances on Earth. Scoring 10 on Mohs' scale, they cannot be scratched by anything below it - including metals and gemstones - giving them their famed indestructibility. Their popularity makes them highly sought-after objects.

Reality check: diamonds can be broken just as easily as any other material, including wood and metal. In fact, even well-cut diamonds may chip from being struck with a hammer in just the right way due to their rigid atomic structures which pack tightly together like latticework formation.

But this doesn't make a diamond "soft." Many people misunderstand the difference between hardness and toughness; hardness refers to an object's ability to resist scratching while toughness measures its fragility; for example, dropping one on the floor could easily result in chips to its surface.

The Toughness of Diamonds

Diamonds may be one of the hardest natural substances on Earth, but that doesn't make them indestructible. A 1.2 carat diamond was given to YouTube channel Hydraulic Press as part of their experimentation and they managed to break it.

Hardness refers to an object's resistance to scratches, not crushing. While diamonds cannot be scratched by anything other than another diamond, this does not make them indestructible.

Due to their fragile crystal structure, any hit from a hammer could potentially break or crush a diamond, meaning that forceful strikes must be applied in order for it to alter its atomic structure and cause changes.

Steel and tungsten have stronger tensile strengths than diamonds, but even they can be broken by an impactful enough blow. A slight blow at a diamond's pointy end (known as its "cleave line") will do just the trick and crack or shatter it completely.

The Strength of Man-Made Metals

Diamonds are famously one of the hardest materials on Earth. Scoring an "10" on Mohs scale indicates it takes tremendous force to break them, although hardness does not equate to toughness.

Hydraulic Press Channel's team put a real 1.2-carat diamond through their hydraulic press and watched as it was broken apart into small bits of dust - creating an incredible video.

This video also explores yield strength, or the maximum degree to which metal can bend before deforming permanently or becoming permanently deformed or distorted. Bending steel pieces easily is possible because of this principle; however, trying to hammer or forcefully press on them could result in fracture.

The video also mentions tungsten, the world's strongest metal used in everything from bullet and missile manufacturing, paint production, electron and television tube creation and industrial purposes - although its extreme strength makes it almost unbreakable with hydraulic presses alone.

The Strength of Diamonds Under Pressure

Diamonds may be strong and resilient, but that doesn't make them indestructible. In an impressive new video uploaded by YouTube channel Hydraulic Press Channel, an 1.2 carat diamond was put through their hydraulic press and promptly shatter.

The video begins by introducing the diamond, a 1.2 carat jewel donated by an individual with excess wealth. Following that introduction, Finnish host of the channel begins ramping up pressure.

At first, building enough pressure to break a diamond may take some time due to gold layers encasing it to dissipate heat and prevent melting under high-pressure. But once they hit it with a massive wave of force, the diamond quickly crumbles to dust.

People often confuse hardness and toughness, with diamond being extremely HARD but not very TOUGH; one hammer strike could easily crack it into millions of pieces!