The Scleroscope test consists of dropping a diamond tipped hammer, which falls inside a glass tube under the force of its own weight from a fixed height, onto the test specimen. The height of the rebound travel of the hammer is measured on a graduated scale. The harder the material, the higher the rebound. The scale of the rebound is arbitrarily chosen and consists on Shore units, divided into 100 parts, which represent the average rebound from pure hardened high-carbon steel. The scale is continued higher than 100 to to allow for metals having greater hardness.
The shore scleroscope test does not normally mark the material under test. The Shore Scleroscope measures hardness in relation to the elasticity of the material.
Advantages of this method are portability and non-marking of the test surface.
