Hi.
I have a question about the properties of jade. While perusing a text on Chinese history, I came upon a claim that jade is "stronger than steel", and that its utility in manufacturing tools and weapons was limited only by the rarity of large, unflawed pieces to work with. This struck me as an odd assertion, and I decided to follow up on it; I found it to be repeated in several books on mineralogy I have on hand, including one which more specifically states that "fine-grained jadeite [...] has greater tensile strength than steel".
However, I'm not able to find any actual data to back this up; all the sources I've checked list jadeite's *hardness* (which does indeed compare favorably to that of hardened steel, both ~7 on Moh's scale), but none have numerical data on jadeite's toughness, tensile strength, or anything else that would allow a more comprehensive comparison. Does anyone know of a source that contains the information I'm looking for - or, better yet, an actual comparative study?
(Though I realise the latter is probably too much to hope for...)
Thanks,
- David Prokopetz.