Rolling a 1 on a damaging saving throw.

[Gromm]

Okay, so a 8pt soundburst would get completely absorbed by the hardness of a longsword, correct?

And if they had a +1 goblinsbane longsword (hardness 11, hp 6 right?) and got hit by a 30hp lightning then it'd take half damage from lightning, or 15, then subtract hardness, and it'd take 4pts of real damage leaving 2hp right? That's assuming the item failed it's own seperate saving throw too. I guess that's fair enough, I was envisioning magic items breaking every 2nd or 3rd round if fireballs are cooking off among the PC's. If the item made it's saving throw it would take 7pts of damage, which doesn't bypass the hardness.

Yep, you've got it right. Even on a 1 its fairly hard to destroy most items. Don't forget the sword in your example also gets a save since its magical (reducing its chances of being destroyed even more).