Andrew Werby wrote:

"Diamond Jim" wrote in message
. com...

In a casual conversation today the question came up, "Is there anything
harder than a diamond?"

Is there?

I am off to do a google but I will welcome any knowledge that anyone might
want to add.


[There's something recently cooked up out of "buckyballs" that's supposed to
be harder than any diamond, although only very small quantities have been
made - look up "ultrahard fullerene". Carbon nitride is another candidate,
but it's awaiting a sample large enough for testing. See
http://home.att.net/~numericana/answ...cs.htm#hardest

If by "a diamond" you mean a natural diamond, there have been some synthetic
diamonds made lately by direct gas deposition that are supposed to be much
harder, see: http://www.physlink.com/News/022504CVDDiamonds.cfm ]

Andrew Werby
www.unitedartworks.com


I can't recall the exact material, but, perhaps two years ago, I read of
a (then) new ceramic-like material that cut diamond quite readilly, with
little wear on itself. I believe this was some abrasive process. I'm not
sure that means it's 'harder'. I suspect you're getting into a semantics
war on what 'harder' actually means. Water can cut things that most
would agree are MUCH harder than water, while causing little 'wear' on
the water.

Dan Mitchell
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