Would you happen to be knowledgeable about the mechanics of the mineral solids? I was wondering how structurally sound a ring cast or carved from a single mineral (let’s say a quartz) would be.

I only ever did a bachelor’s in Geo and do some jeweling and gem-dealing, so I have an educated guess that it wouldn’t be, due to cleavage planes making it brittle. I’m contrasting it with its chemical twin, glass, which is successfully formed into a variety of shapes—I imagine this because of its vitreous crystal form giving it more flex than minerals with actual geometric crystal forms. I was fairly confident at first, then started considering how fast cooling can mean only tiny crystals get to form, so maybe that would be sound compared to carving a ring out of a gem-quality sample.

I also recalled that jade minerals have been carved by humans for ages without casting or modern tools, so now I’m doubting my guess, or wondering if less-than-gem-quality materials would work better.

Small-time jeweler and gem dealer also here. I’d like to qualify that hardness of a stone only refers to resistance to abrasion (scratching), and is distinct from tenacity, the resistance to breakage and deformation. Diamond, for instance, has perfect cleavage (planes of weakness in the crystal) in 4 directions (like the top of a pyramid) so, despite its extreme hardness, it’s actually vulnerable to breakage relative to sapphire, which isn’t as hard. To be clear, it still has good tenacity, just not excellent tenacity.

In what way is China gay?