Boron-nitride (BN) films are deposited by the reactive sputter deposition from fully dense, boron targets utilizing a planar magnetron source and an argon-nitrogen working gas mixture. Near-edge X-ray absorption fine structure analysis reveals distinguishing features of chemical bonding within the boron 1s photoabsorption cross-section. The hardness of the BN film surface is measured using nanoindentation. The sputter deposition conditions as well as the post-deposition treatments of annealing and nitrogen-ion implantation effect the chemical bonding and the film hardness. The hardness of a layered B/BN coating is decreased twofold after an anneal whereas the hardness of a BN film is increased four-fold by a 90 keV N+ implant. A model is proposed to quantify the film hardness that ranges from 0.1 to 30 GPa using the relative peak intensities of the pi*-resonances to the boron 1s spectra.