How to make a kit for testing hardness and streak of minerals: a narration by the 7-year-old.

The things that you are testing are streak and hardness. To make a kit, you need a little purse or bag that has no holes. You will need in the bag these things:

1. You will need a copper penny.
2. You will need a piece of glass.
3. You will need a piece of quartz.
4. You will need an unglazed porcelain tile.
5. You will need a steel knife.

Also, do not put this in your bag: you will need your fingernail.

Scratch your fingernail on the mineral. And if the fingernail scratches the mineral easily, then the mineral’s hardness is 1. Or if you can scratch it barely, its hardness is number 2.

Then, if your fingernail does not scratch the mineral, take your copper penny and scratch it on the mineral. If you can just barely scratch the mineral with a copper penny, the hardness is 3.

If you cannot scratch it with a penny, take your steel knife. Take its point that’s on the very end of the knife and scratch the mineral. If you can easily scratch it with the knife, its hardness is 4.

If you can barely scratch the mineral with the knife, you should also take your piece of glass and see if the mineral will scratch the glass. If it scratches the glass, its hardness is 5.

If you can’t scratch the mineral with the knife at all, but it will scratch the glass easily, then its hardness is number 6.

You will need the knife and the glass for this one. If the mineral will scratch both the glass and the knife, then its hardness number is at least 7.

You will need the quartz for this one. If the mineral can scratch the quartz, then its hardness number is at least 8, and you can’t be sure if its number is 8. Because other rocks can scratch quartz too.

You will need the unglazed porcelain tile for testing the streak. Take your mineral and take your porcelain tile. Take the mineral and then scratch it on the tile. It will make probably a mark that is a different color from the color of the rock.

I used a book from the library to help me make these instructions for finding out what minerals it is. The book is called All About Our Changing Rocks and the author is Anne Terry White. It was made in 1955.