Oh that looks neat

Welcome from Southern Nevada.

Welcome from Missouri.   Hardness testers can be expensive.  Here is a link to a simple scale that will get you close.  


www.nps.gov/articles/mohs-hardness-scale.htm

Welcome from Wisconsin! I live on a moraine so I know exactly what you are talking about! It’s not so easy to identify your rocks when A) they are well weathered and B) you don’t have the first clue where the material came from. Hardness testing is useful for rocks that are primarily single mineral (like agates) but not as useful for things with a mix of minerals (unakite) since it’s hard to test the individual minerals. I found that visually examination with magnification is more useful for most of my rocks.
If you are picking up well worn material like you see at Lake Superior you can learn to identify common things visually. If your rocks have a weathered crust like what I dig or find in gravel, you will need to open them up since the material on the rind is often different from what is inside. You can use a cheap tile saw to cut a piece off to see inside, which also gives you a flat face to do hardness testing. I use a hammer or another rock to break the piece I cut off, which lets me see what shapes the minerals make to compare to mineral guides. The UW has a site that lists minerals found in the state with each mineral also having a list of known counties (my county isn’t well surveyed, sadly). UofM probably has something similar you can reference.
Good luck! Glacial gravel is a bugger to identify, but eventually you will get used to what things you find frequently and what they look like (for you), and not need to test each one every time.

Welcome!

Hey Nick! Welcome to the forum from South Dakota!