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Post by Vanessa Pierce on Sept 20, 2004 1:58:53 GMT -5
OK some friends and our family went hiking a couple of weeks ago and we were looking at different types of rocks and we found some Almadine Garnets. So wee took them to a mineral show and they turned around and told us that if we tumble them they would be very good quality gems. So we tumbled them for a week like they said to do and we took them out of the tumbler and they do not look like the Garnet we stuck in there. Could anyone please tell me or show me what they look like after the first stage of tumbling. If it isnt any good than thats ok because i know where to gat A HOLE LOT MORE. This is a learning process and I would like some sugestions please. Thank you
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llanago
fully equipped rock polisher
Member since January 2004
Posts: 1,714
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Post by llanago on Sept 20, 2004 8:33:43 GMT -5
Hi Vanessa, welcome to the forum. I haven't done garnets yet, but I can tell you if you only put the in the tumbler for a week, they ain't ready. LOL! Tumbling is a 4 or 5 stage process. The first stage is the coarse grind to shape and smooth the stone - this sometimes takes weeks and weeks. Then the stones are moved to a finer grit for a week to further smooth the stone. Then they go into an even finer grit, the pre-polish, for a week. Then the polish stage for a week. Andy has a great tutorial that can be found here. andy321.proboards16.com/index.cgi?board=general&action=post&thread=1095663533&start=0You haven't ruined your rocks, you just haven't taken them thru the full process of tumbling yet. Somewhere on the forum here there is a thread on garnets. Don't know where though, you will just have to go back thru the pages and hunt for it. Or someone else on here might have it right at their fingertips and post it. llana
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Post by connrock on Sept 21, 2004 8:04:21 GMT -5
Hi Venassa and welcome to our group!! Now there are almandine garnets and there are almandine garnets!! This is an almandine garnet crystal : Which can be tumbled but is NOT,in most cases, a gemmy type of material. This is almandine gem grade rough : If you have this type I wouldn't tumble it just yet.I would check with a faceter to see if it is facet grade or not. We have a few faceters here in our group who can help you a lot better then I can,,,,I'm just a "tumbler" !! Hope this helps,,,, Tom
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rollingstone
starting to spend too much on rocks
Member since July 2009
Posts: 236
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Post by rollingstone on Sept 22, 2004 3:53:50 GMT -5
BTW, the best photos of tumbled garnets that I recall seeing in this forum were posted by riverotter....you'd have to scan back through the members photos section to find them, I don't recall exactly when they were posted, but it was awhile back.
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Post by VanessaPierce on Oct 1, 2004 21:00:45 GMT -5
Hey everyone I just wanted to say thanks. Those are some REALLY nice Garnets you have and i did find some Garnets in this forum that looked similar to what I am tumbling. As soon as i get a camera from a friend of ours I will try to show everyone what they look like. Thanks again
Vanessa
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