In mineralogy, hardness is the resistance to scratching. Mohs’ scale of hardness is generally used to obtain relative hardness information by comparing (i.e., by a scratch test) an unknown to one of ten minerals defined in the Mohs’ hardness scale. Hardness tests are performed on a smooth surface of the unknown. Hardness is not an isotropic property and thus, may depend on the direction in which the surface is scratched, although the differences in most minerals are small.
Cf., Mohs hardness, Vickers hardness