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.
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Since it's the only kind available I give it 5 stars. It's a simple tool that makes mineral ID much easier. Case in point: I used it in a college geology lab. We did 5 series of mineral ID based mostly on visual clues (mohs, color, streak, crystal, etc..) and NOT things like HCl or specific gravities. For me the mohs test pushed me in the right direction each time. The fist series of tests(before I purchased this kit) I used common objects to determine the hardness. It took me 2 hours to accurately ID about 25 minerals. The mohs being the biggest challenge.
I then purchased this kit and was able to ID the next few series of minerals much more accurately and quickly. I combination with an Optivisor loupe I could easily see and note hardness.
So yea ,it's pricey, but it's a good tool. Quality made to last for a long long time. The picks are ample and I ID about 100 minerals and only re-tipped the softest and those just barely.
In my opinion these are a very good value for the geologist minded student or pro.
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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.
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Materials and craftsmanship give this 4 stars. Price still seems high for this, but there doesn't seem to be a huge assortment of these types of kits like this.
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Well presented and hardness tips seem to be accurate. It can be used for testing the hardness of minerals/rocks. Thanks.
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