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Post by Toad on Oct 22, 2004 21:10:04 GMT -5
Anyone have experience tumbling sapphires? Were you happy with the results?
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Post by cookie3rocks on Oct 22, 2004 21:40:00 GMT -5
Toad, I actually went mining for corumdom on vacation this year. That part was fun. I ran my batch for a month (in a vibe, mind you) in coarse, a month in 600, and gave the hell up! It's one of the things I'll probably get back to this winter when it's too cold to break rocks. To get it too a good stage you almost have to wear it away to nothing. I only have the one vibe, and frankly, I got boared. .And that's all I have to say about that. ;D
cookie
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Post by puppie96 on Oct 23, 2004 3:16:38 GMT -5
hey cookster, I figured this was the reason you hadn't mentioned them ... same reason as me! Though I took them a lot further than you, obviously. Barrels work better on this stuff, that's one thing I'm sure of. If you keep at it long enough, pieces of the little gravel will turn out to be pretty little gemstones. Emphasis on the "little."
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Post by docone31 on Oct 23, 2004 7:48:19 GMT -5
Way down in the early threads on this forum is a thread on tumbling saphires/rubies and emeralds. I tumble the corundum but I do it to cull for faceting. I like the way emerald tumbles but I would not except for some exceptional samples want to present the ruby saphire tumble to the public in my shop. Tumbling the corundum helps me see the orientation in the stone for cutting. They are hard nasty stones to tumble. I have taken to putting random batches in other stones when I tumble. They take so long I use them as filler in smaller batches of regular tumbles.
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Post by Toad on Oct 23, 2004 8:14:55 GMT -5
Thanks for the replies. I was suprised not to find any threads when I searched, but now I know why.
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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 Oct 23, 2004 20:04:21 GMT -5
Every so often a thread pops up on tumbling rubies and sapphires (corundum). The only photo of tumbled rubies/saph. I recall seeing are one single stone in a mixed batch (by Puppie I think), but the pic was kinda small to really see how things turned out. So I did a search a couple months back and was able to find some very limited info and pics on finished results from tumbling rubies (which are the red form of corundum, sapphires being all other colours). So here is a pic of a finished ruby. This is not my work, and I don't remember where I found it, so I can't give the original poster proper credit, nor do I know how long it took to go from rough to polished stone, or by what method. Anyway, I post it for interest sake, but seeing how it isn't my photo and I don't know who to give credit to, I will only leave this up for a day or two before removing it.
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Post by Toad on Oct 23, 2004 21:11:39 GMT -5
Thanks rollingstone. Not the most interesting rock, but it took a nice polish.
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Post by docone31 on Oct 23, 2004 21:33:40 GMT -5
All I can say is wow! I have yet to get those results from tumbling corundum. I probably would have done an emerald cut on that stone. The cleaves would have actually added to the look of the finished stone. When I have cleaves like that, I do oil the stones. I am going to try CA on my next ruby. Not to synthesize a treasure, it blends the colour together on the final polish. A lot of people I have cut for like the cleaves, and grain holes in the final polish. That is one georgeous tumbled stone, I am glad I saw it. It can be done!
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RiverOtter
spending too much on rocks
Member since January 2004
Posts: 339
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Post by RiverOtter on Oct 24, 2004 0:54:55 GMT -5
I've been running my batch since March. Just took them out of a month long polish run and they sure didn't look anything like the one in the photo. I needed the polish barrel for another batch. Figure I might throw them back in at a later date when I have nothing else to run and my frustration with them wears off.
Otter
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Post by puppie96 on Oct 24, 2004 1:56:14 GMT -5
Rollingstone, please don't take down the picture, it is good for reference and well explained. I once found a website selling polished rubies that showed ones looking much like that, and I stupidly lost the site and have never found it again. IIRC it said they were hand polished -- in India. I've had a few really nice stones pop out. What is bugging me is that I met a vendor at a show last spring who had a plastic container full of beautiful, shiny Montana sapphires in a variety of colors. She gave me her method and I followed her directions to the letter, but it didn't work. I retried it with slight variation, still no luck. I haven't seen her since, though I'll sure be trying to find her at the shows. Not because I'm mad, which hopefully is obvious, but because I'd like to further discuss it with her. I liked her, and I'm sure she was honest. It could well be that the major difference was the quality of her rough rock. Guessing.
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llanago
fully equipped rock polisher
Member since January 2004
Posts: 1,714
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Post by llanago on Oct 24, 2004 10:06:16 GMT -5
Sapphires, rubies and emeralds! ! I think almost everyone on the forum has tried their hand at these three stones! LOL! And, don't think anybody has been satisfied with their results with the sapphires and rubies. Seems we all toss them aside for a while, then try again. Needless to say, they are booger-bears. I bought a 50# sack of sapphire gravel before I started tumbling. Never had time to sift through it, so now I use it for fill. The batch in prepolish in the vibe now I noticed has a few tiny, bright red stones in it. I'm thinking they might be garnets or something similar. There's also a large sapphire in there that I have been working on periodically since January. I think I'm going to take it to the grinder and see what happens. llana
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Post by Toad on Oct 24, 2004 13:52:00 GMT -5
Llanna, how much did the sack cost you? Where'd you buy it.
Yes, despite all warnings to the contrary - I too will try my hand at tumbling corundum. What can I say, I'm a glutton.
But not 'til after I've tried some agate as a confidence builder.
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