A target cylinder and a method for fabricating the target cylinder. The target cylinder includes a first end, a second end, and a sidewall extending from the first end to the second end. At least one of the second end and the sidewall is an exposed portion that makes contact with a superhard component to determine at least one property of the superhard component. The exposed portion comprises at least one soft material and at least one hard material that is interveningly positioned between or within the soft material in a predetermined and repeatable pattern. In one embodiment, the differential of the unconfined compressive strength between the hard material and the soft material ranges from about 1,000 psi to about 60,000 psi.