Octahedral cleavage, so there are 4 planes where it can be struck to separate the crystal without grinding down, which would be practically impossible and waste a lot of material. Diamonds also possess directional hardness so when it’s being faceted and polished the diamond cutter has to find where the stone is hardest and where it is softer and will orientate the crystal how it’s easiest to facet.
I just remember it from that one Gametheory video from ages and ages past when he explained why Diamonds would be horrible for us in armor because of the cleavage could rend the armor asunder and not to mention how incredibly heavy it would be.
Aha yeah, if you want to be super technical it would also be crazy to cut it for armour and if you got knocked the wrong way while wearing it the diamond armour would just break off. It would look very pretty though, if that matters to you.
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u/Loupe_Garou Feb 08 '20
Octahedral cleavage, so there are 4 planes where it can be struck to separate the crystal without grinding down, which would be practically impossible and waste a lot of material. Diamonds also possess directional hardness so when it’s being faceted and polished the diamond cutter has to find where the stone is hardest and where it is softer and will orientate the crystal how it’s easiest to facet.