do you understand the difference between tempering of things that are tempered to withstand blows and still be hard, and things that aren't?
neither a regular socket or an impact socket is hard enough to literally shatter, something you might see with tool steel like a tap, break a tap off in a hole and it might break in multiple pieces. and there is no give to it. (take a hammer, beat a piece of steel with it, or another hammer. and it might never chip, then, take the hammer, heat it up til its orange and dip it in a bath of old engine oil and introduce alot more carbon to it. making it "harder", then take that hammer and hit the other hammer again.. not only will neither hammer have any significant indentations but the one you just hardened will now chip and lose pieces of itself to the other hammer which is not brittle, but is still hard enough to keep from deforming.)
most sockets will split before anything snaps, and the difference between the two is that a regular socket is actually more likely softer, while an impact socket while it is not brittle, would be much harder than a regular socket, otherwise you would see it deforming more. they have thicker walls so they can be harder without sacrificing durability. i've seen regular sockets rounded out inside from impact use, and then used the same 1 1/2" deepwell impact socket on a 3/4" impact gun for a solid 3 years and the walls in the socket were damn near the same as a brand new one
there is a lot more to tempering than simply being hard and soft.
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