stephent
starting to spend too much on rocks
Member since March 2014
Posts: 213
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Post by stephent on Jun 8, 2014 1:24:12 GMT -5
Just got a batch out of final burnish. A few almost cabs. Some of beefjello's slabs (about 4 pieces in this and NOT the really purty stuff yet...I'm going to wait till I am a bit more sure of what and how to do this polishing/cabbing before I ruin those) I acquired and cut/shaped and went to 3K on the diamond laps and a few turns on the buff wheel and finished in my rollin tumbler in polish with the river rocks and a few pieces of Brazilian Agate smalls. The Amethyst piece of course isn't local... dunno what the green speckled stones are...but I fished them out of the Arkansas gravel bank. Quartz was sawed or hammered from that Quartz rocks from down in North Little Rock I acquired back in Feb? Rose Quartz (iron stained?) same place. The quarter is in there for size reference and to make the pile at least worth "something".
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Post by snowmom on Jun 8, 2014 4:34:59 GMT -5
pretty! It takes a lot of looking to see all that's going on there.. I'd love to get a closer look at a lot of those... and to think you held back some even nicer! Looking forward to seeing where you go with this. Green speckled are cool. What is that silvery something down in the right corner next to the piece that looks like carnelian?
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tkvancil
fully equipped rock polisher
Member since September 2011
Posts: 1,546
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Post by tkvancil on Jun 8, 2014 8:48:27 GMT -5
Looking good. I've always heard that quartz will get beat up when mixed with other rocks. Seems like yours are fine. Makes me wish I'd added some in my current run.
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jamesp
Cave Dweller
Member since October 2012
Posts: 36,159
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Post by jamesp on Jun 8, 2014 13:40:44 GMT -5
You probably got palm near you stephant. It is in Louisiana, the state stone. In river gravel about mid-state I believe.
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stephent
starting to spend too much on rocks
Member since March 2014
Posts: 213
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Post by stephent on Jun 8, 2014 13:41:29 GMT -5
All of these went thru pre-polish and polish with used wine cork pieces (about 1/3 of total volume of barrel)....but different batches of cork cuz that stuff is porous! And the Cerium polish cycle had 1 cup of sugar added for a slightly better viscosity to the slurry soup. And snowmom ...I think that silvery/grey piece is Chert..or Granite?? ...it's medium grey with lighter grey spots. With lot of camera flash going on to make it look silvery, and it's *shiny*.. The "Carnelian" is a heavily stained (iron?) quartz I whacked out from all the quartz I got from North Little Rock dig....I think. And used my little diamond whizzer-grinder to knock off the deeper holes and cracks before starting tumbling at 120-220 grit. But there is some Carnelian in the mix...I think? And I forgot...there's a piece or two of North West Arkansas Marble in that mix too. I had picked up 20-25 pounds of it and ground it with whatever basic nature shaped outline it had and threw it into the pre-polish cycle barrel with the other stones to see how it would fare with slightly harder. It came out shiny. Most of the more/less shaped stones were put in a barrel in the pre-polish stage after using 150--> 1200 or 3K diamond lap disks. Agates...Jasper...marble.."I-don't-know-stones"<---Arkansas River stones. None of the stones have seen a 60-90 grit tumble though. I started at 120-220 grit in a rotary this time. One-half-full and 2 cycles of 5 days each with 3 tbsp of grit each time with no wash-out between. I used my fastest spinning barrel and motor combo I had for the full set of cycles. I was "experimenting"!
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carloscinco
fully equipped rock polisher
Member since July 2008
Posts: 1,639
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Post by carloscinco on Jun 8, 2014 18:35:16 GMT -5
That's a crowd pleaser for sure. Something for everyone! Good job.
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Post by nowyo on Jun 9, 2014 0:05:59 GMT -5
Looking good there. Nice shine on those rocks.
Russ
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Post by pghram on Jun 9, 2014 22:11:58 GMT -5
Nice batch of stones.
Rich
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Fossilman
Cave Dweller
Member since January 2009
Posts: 20,685
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Post by Fossilman on Jun 14, 2014 17:13:54 GMT -5
Very nice!
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Post by iant on Jun 15, 2014 12:00:07 GMT -5
Great selection of colours in that batch and nicely worked!
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