As a materials science expert with a focus on metallurgy, I can tell you that the concept of the "hardest metal" can be a bit misleading because hardness is not a single property but rather a combination of characteristics such as tensile strength, yield strength, and resistance to wear and abrasion. However, if we're talking about pure metals and not alloys or composites, then
chromium is often considered one of the hardest metals. It has a hardness of around 9 on the Mohs scale, which is a relative scale of mineral hardness.
When it comes to alloys,
tungsten carbide is known for its extreme hardness and is often used in applications that require high wear resistance, such as in the tips of industrial drills and in metal cutting tools. Tungsten carbide is not a pure metal but a compound (carbide) of tungsten and carbon.
It's important to note that the hardness of a metal can be significantly altered by various heat treatments and the addition of other elements to form alloys. For instance,
steel, which is an alloy primarily composed of iron and carbon, can be made much harder than pure iron through processes like quenching and tempering.
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