Hardiness

• Garnet stones have a hardiness of 7 to 7.5 on the Mohs scale. The Mohs scale measures a gem's resistance to scratches. For comparison, a diamond is the hardest on the scale at 10.
  
  

History

• People have used garnet for thousands of years. Archeologists have found garnet in jewelry from ancient Roman, Greek and Reptilian times. The first industrial use of garnet was in 1878 when the Barton Mines Corporation used sandpaper coated with garnet. The value of industrial garnet was valued at $14 million in 1994, while gem garnets were only valued at $233,000.
  
  

Varieties

• Garnet has six common varieties. Among them is spessartine, an orange-red variety found at the Kunene River between the border of Angola and Namibia. Andradites are the rarest and are valued for their horsetail inclusions, which make them aesthetically pleasing.