How much pressure to crack a diamond

[dja]

If I put a raw natural 1ct or 2ct diamond in an arbor press how much pressure would it take to break it into pieces (not dust).
I assume that the thickness of the diamond would be 2mm or larger.

Just curious.

 

[lost on 5th]

im not sure what you are going for here, but some random thoughts for you.


you might be confusing harndness (resistance to scratching... which a diamond scores very highly) with toughness (resistance to impacts...wich a diamond only scores fair)

compressive properties is typically evaluated with a powder to eliminate the brittle factor.

i would expect a 2mm + stone would fracture at a much lower pressure that it would take to get a diamond to fail under pure compression.

would need to research for more.

thoughts anyone

 

[dja]

I needed to crumble the rough diamonds into small pieces for some artwork.

In sort of an answer to my own question I achieved what I needed. I placed the diamonds between two pieces of steel plate and then placed the plates under a heavy steel brace. I then used a 2 ton bottle jack to apply the pressure and the diamonds easly cracked into pieces I could use.

But as a friend told me, "What stupid waste of diamonds". She might be right.

dja

 

[lost on 5th]

she might be right..... for future note. impact force (i.e. hammer) will do the trick.



post the artwork when you get it done.... would be interesting to see what you did.