Artists use certain minerals to carve because of their softness. Talc, serpentine, jade, and malachite are soft enough to carve and produce beautiful smooth figures. The color of some of the minerals also make them excellent choices for ornamental uses. For example rose quartz is a pink color, but because it is hard is not used for carving, only as a gemstone.

Hardness is also useful as an abrasive. Some varieties of corundum are used as "sand" on sandpaper to help smooth surfaces. Human-made diamonds and garnets are also used to make different grades of abrasives. Different grain sizes of quartz are also used as abrasives, especially to make very smooth surfaces.