Physical properties of jade?

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.

Reply to
David Prokopetz
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David,

I would never fight with a sword of Jade against a sword of steel ! In this case I should better throw Jade lumps on the enemy ... I have some expiriences with Jade in the sight of cutting and polishing - it' a terrible, heterogene material. Because of the genesis Jade is a partly fibrous stone with a lot of micro fissures; mostly you must suffer after giving the stone a form with grinding material down to 400 mesh a nasty break. That's very hard, especially in the case of best coloured Jade lumps. OK, the best parts of a Jade lump are a bit harder than hardened normal steel ... but fight with steel and take Jade only for jewels or cult objects.

Wolfgang

Reply to
dr.wolfgang.behrens

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