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Post by frane on Dec 4, 2011 18:42:26 GMT -5
Hi Everyone, I went a while back to our Friends house in Catlet. Their daughter wanted me to go with her to find some rocks to tumble. Their field had just been plowed so we just walked around and got a pretty good bucket of quartz in a short amount of time. I have been rushing these through a tumble to get some ready to give her. Although the pictures don't do it justice, most of these pieces have quite a bit of Schiller and really sparkle in the sunlight. I guess they have quite a bit of Mica in them. I would almost call most of this aventurine because of that. It was also heavily fractured material but that is common for quartz. I think we even managed to find a bit of citrine and clear quartz. Take a look: Whole 1.5lb batch made it to polish. The one in the center bottom almost makes me think wood because of the white area but I have no idea Clear ones or Citrine Really hard to catch the sparkles in it but I tried I have to admit, some of the stones were too large for the tumbler so I cut them in slices before putting them in. Several look like the same stone but they are not. I think she will be happy with these! Thanks for looking! Fran
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snuffy
Cave Dweller
Member since May 2009
Posts: 4,319
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Post by snuffy on Dec 4, 2011 18:48:11 GMT -5
Great shiny batch,Fran,I know she will be tickled about those.She will have you out after every rain. snuffy
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carloscinco
fully equipped rock polisher
Member since July 2008
Posts: 1,639
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Post by carloscinco on Dec 4, 2011 19:17:17 GMT -5
That looks like a fun batch which turned out real nice. Nothing better than making a child happy.
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grayfingers
Cave Dweller
Member since November 2007
Posts: 4,575
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Post by grayfingers on Dec 4, 2011 19:37:25 GMT -5
Very pretty quartz! Nice variety of colors.
Bill
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NorthShore-Rocks
fully equipped rock polisher
Member since December 2008
Posts: 1,004
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Post by NorthShore-Rocks on Dec 5, 2011 20:23:51 GMT -5
Beautiful shapes and shine Fran!!!
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Post by tntmom on Dec 5, 2011 21:32:07 GMT -5
YEAH she's gonna be happy! Very nice!!!
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Post by paulshiroma on Dec 5, 2011 22:21:26 GMT -5
These came out really nice, Fran. I have to admit that this has got me interested in some of the common white (more or less) quartz that Andrew and Nathaniel picked up on some of our earlier trips. Andrew wanted to try tumbling them although I was sort of holding off but your came out great. May as well give 'em a try. Paul
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mjflinty
spending too much on rocks
Member since September 2011
Posts: 358
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Post by mjflinty on Dec 6, 2011 9:02:19 GMT -5
I collect the quartz pebbles at our beach and add them in to every batch as filler. Some come out really nice! Good job on those! Always good to get kids excited about rocks!
Michael
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Post by texaswoodie on Dec 6, 2011 11:47:05 GMT -5
Well rounded and polished stones Fran!
Curt
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jspencer
freely admits to licking rocks
Member since March 2011
Posts: 929
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Post by jspencer on Dec 6, 2011 13:51:00 GMT -5
We commonly find very similar stones here in central Tx. This is a piece of red aventurine I polished up in a batch of it. I have no idea why it is but some of the rocks will polish up as smooth as glass but on others it seems that the crystals have tiny voids causing them to be porous. I do spy one oblong red stone in your pics which looks like the red aventurine I have. The crackled look in them is really eye pleasing when they come out nice and smooth. Nice batch! Attachments:
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Post by tandl on Dec 6, 2011 19:24:08 GMT -5
Love these , Fran ! All the different colors and patterns
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Post by frane on Dec 7, 2011 21:30:51 GMT -5
Thanks everyone! Hey Paul, the only thing I would recommend is to use a lot of filler, even some in the first grit stage to keep from getting deep fractures and chips. This material is naturally fractured so it doesn't need more than what it already has. I have more running in another tumbler that are similar to this first batch, only it is out of my garden area. I think I have a lot more of the darker stones in my still running batch. Time will tell. Fran
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