|
Post by Debra on Mar 13, 2005 21:13:09 GMT -5
Question please
Can you put rough diamonds into a rock tumbler? If yes, how do you think they would turn out? Has anyone tried this? Thanks again for the good info!
|
|
|
Post by Toad on Mar 13, 2005 21:51:37 GMT -5
I don't think it would turn out good, as they don't make hard enough grit.
But given enough time, it might work with them just rubbing on eachother.
|
|
|
Post by cookie3rocks on Mar 13, 2005 22:15:35 GMT -5
|
|
|
Post by Alice on Mar 13, 2005 23:35:02 GMT -5
I have a small lot of very low grade rough diamonds coming in the mail (I paid $2 for 15 - 20 size of a pencil eraser diamonds on ebay).
I am going to throw them into the tumbler, but not because I want to have tumbled diamonds, because I want to try to see if it'll help along my rubies and sapphires. Who knows, maybe they'll all help eachother out and I'll end up with tumbled diamonds. But they will be very low quality ones (probably worth less then the $2 I paid for them).
|
|
rollingstone
starting to spend too much on rocks
Member since July 2009
Posts: 236
|
Post by rollingstone on Mar 14, 2005 1:49:47 GMT -5
Debra -- I don't think you could tumble-polish diamonds, unless you were very rich and very patient. Diamond is the hardest material known, so there is no grit that could smooth diamond, except other diamonds. In order to complete the process in any reasonable time frame, you couldn't use the diamonds as filler in a batch of other rocks, because that would make the diamond-on-diamond contacts very rare. So you'd have to run pure diamonds, or at least mainly diamonds. That would mean filling a 1.5 barrel (the smallest commercial barrel available) with diamonds, or mostly diamonds. A pound of diamonds is almost 2300 carats, and that's where the being rich part comes in ;D And since the diamonds would just be rubbing against particles of the same hardness instead of against a harder material, it would be a slow process.
It would certainly be an awesome project, but in the end I doubt that tumbled diamonds would look much different than tumbled quartz -- diamond gets its real gem value from the fire that it shows when it is faceted, not tumbled.
Alice -- if you put diamonds in with rubies and sapphires I would guess that the diamonds might help to smooth the rubies/saphs, but at some point I think you would want to remove the diamonds or they might just end up scratching the rubies/saphs and preventing them from polishing. If you had diamond dust -- the same particle size as polish powders (which I think is generally around 1 micron) -- then that would be a wonderful polish for rubies/saphs. But I bet it would cost a small fortune.
|
|
|
Post by Alice on Mar 14, 2005 7:26:23 GMT -5
|
|
|
Post by docone31 on Mar 14, 2005 10:15:45 GMT -5
Diamonds are top of the MOHS scale. They do fracture easily however. I am going to be interested in watching how they stand up. I do not facet diamonds. I do not like them. Of all the stones, they are cold to me. Please keep us posted on this.
|
|
|
Post by Alice on Mar 14, 2005 11:42:55 GMT -5
Docone, An old boyfriend of mine (from 12+ years ago) was a jewler. I remember him telling me that diamonds are pretty shock resistant. It's quick temperature changes that cause diamonds to crack (Like dipping it into ice water and then dipping it in boiling water). Was I misinformed?
I will definately keep everyone upto date when I start an actual load of rubies and sapphires (and throw in some diamond rough). But that won't be for a LONG while. I have emeralds tumbling now (with a handful of rubies and sapphires which are all pretty small). Next will be Seam Garnets (which just came in the mail today... boy are they ever dirty!). I'm thinking (key word being THINKING) of throwing some in with the emeralds at the end of the week (Some emeralds will need more coarse grit, I'm sure). The garnets apear to have no sharp edges, and I really don't think they'll hurt the emeralds. and then after the garnets, it'll be saphires and / or rubies. So... maybe in a year from now?
|
|
|
Post by Toad on Mar 14, 2005 13:41:17 GMT -5
If you're just using the diamonds as abrasive for corundum, then you should meet with some success.
I thought you wnated to polish the diamond. Even if you could, the results would probably be similar to clear quartz. Pretty boring. I believe the facets give diamonds their fire.
|
|
|
Post by Alice on Mar 14, 2005 13:47:04 GMT -5
Toad, it was Debra who wanted to tumble diamonds. I just jumped in with what I plan to do with mine.
I agree, diamonds would probably just end up looking like quartz, or even just like tumbled glass. if you were successful.
|
|
Debs
fully equipped rock polisher
Member since February 2005
Posts: 1,252
|
Post by Debs on Mar 14, 2005 14:42:40 GMT -5
I too recently purchased some, raw uncut diamonds. It was just a thought about tumbling them with some other stones, such as rubies, emeralds or sapphires too. I will have to do some more research before I try it. Do you think adding plastic pellets would help cushion them while they work on the other stones? Humm...
|
|
|
Post by Toad on Mar 14, 2005 22:29:33 GMT -5
Yes, plastic pellets would help with cushioning- but that would also slow down the abrasive process. Like almost everything in life - it's a trade off.
|
|