Identification

Corundum (Ruby and Sapphire) Identification Sheet

The Mohs 9 anchor at the top of every field kit: ruby and sapphire are the same mineral, identified by extreme hardness and barrel-shaped crystals.

Rock type: Igneous, Metamorphic

For: Collectors, Lapidary Artists

Mohs hardness 9 9 (defines the scale point)
Streak Colorless Colorless (harder than the streak plate — scratching the plate is itself diagnostic)
Luster Adamantine, Vitreous Adamantine to vitreous
CleavageNone (basal and rhombohedral parting)
Crystal habit Prismatic, Tabular, Bipyramidal Steep bipyramids, barrel-shaped prisms, and tabular crystals

Corundum (aluminum oxide) defines hardness 9 — only diamond among common references is harder, so corundum scratches everything else in the kit and leaves no streak on a porcelain plate. Red gem corundum is ruby; every other color is sapphire. Look for six-sided barrel or bipyramidal crystals with basal parting in metamorphic rocks and gravels.

Anchoring the scale

At Mohs 9, corundum is the practical ceiling of field testing: it scratches every common reference and yields only to diamond. That makes a small synthetic corundum point the most useful upgrade a serious kit can take — the "Beyond 8" brief covers the options and the honest limits. The bottom of the scale belongs to talc, which puts up no resistance at all.

Related in the library

Common lookalikes

Spinel (octahedral, softer at 8), garnet (no parting, softer), quartz (far softer). If it scratches topaz, think corundum.