Is this a shot test

[gordon]

Originally Posted by Richard Farrant

The Daimler armoured vehicles made during WW2 had a much more accurate hardness test and done with a very small ball probably only a few millimetres in diameter.

Just another explanatory note here, although the ball used to make the impression was 10mm diameter, the resulting impression could be just 2, 3, or 4 mm on most surfaces, so that would fit quite well.

The surface grinding Richard mentions was to clean up any surface roughness and remove any effects of surface hardening, as the hardness value can drop quite dramatically if you remove as little as 1/32" of metal from the surface.