Post by artmaker on Sept 17, 2018 22:26:45 GMT -5
Hello fellow rock hounds....
I'm VERY new to this. Time to start picking the brains of other rock nuts.
This might not be the place to go into much detail (I'm sure an admin will let me know if I blabbered on too much.) But here goes.
Just got back from a trip up to Traverse City, and of course sleeping bear dunes.... love to snorkel and just now discovered the tons of assorted stones in the lake. So many different kinds. Gees I've been snorkeling lake Michigan all my life but usually in sandy beaches. The variety all in one place was amazing.
THEN.... just yesterday I discovered another beach very close to me (so I can get there any time.) with the same amazing assortment of stones.
So I started collecting.... now a few I know, (very few.) Some I stopped at a local gem shop while up in Traverse City. I also picked up tumbling grits, starting with #2.
(FIgured the lake already did step one but reading right before I found this forum suggests I probably should start with #1 anyway.)
I do have a small tumbler, just a kids one I bought many years ago. I've used it on my own polymer clay beads, but it hasn't seen actual rocks in many years.
Should still work though.
But... before I go waste time, power, etc... best to come here and learn a few things.
For one thing, I know I have some real sweet pieces of fossilized corals. And I already read they are too soft to put in a rock tumbler. I picked up assorted grits of wet sand paper, thought I'd see what I can do by hand... however, these ARE rocks. I don't know if I can polish them smooth by hand. Don't really want to blow a ton of money on tools so maybe the corals should wait?
The guy at that gem shop pointed to some of the granite pieces I had and said in a rather condescending tone, "counter top material." Well I don't care, they are pretty and pretty sure those are hard enough to start out with in the tumbler.
Then I have some I'm not sure what they are. Strange lime green veining in them.
Also... can you tumble large rocks? By "large" I mean between golf ball and base ball size? Not in MY tumbler but just wondering if those are usually polished the same way.
So see? Lots of questions. Anyway,
hi.
I'm VERY new to this. Time to start picking the brains of other rock nuts.
This might not be the place to go into much detail (I'm sure an admin will let me know if I blabbered on too much.) But here goes.
Just got back from a trip up to Traverse City, and of course sleeping bear dunes.... love to snorkel and just now discovered the tons of assorted stones in the lake. So many different kinds. Gees I've been snorkeling lake Michigan all my life but usually in sandy beaches. The variety all in one place was amazing.
THEN.... just yesterday I discovered another beach very close to me (so I can get there any time.) with the same amazing assortment of stones.
So I started collecting.... now a few I know, (very few.) Some I stopped at a local gem shop while up in Traverse City. I also picked up tumbling grits, starting with #2.
(FIgured the lake already did step one but reading right before I found this forum suggests I probably should start with #1 anyway.)
I do have a small tumbler, just a kids one I bought many years ago. I've used it on my own polymer clay beads, but it hasn't seen actual rocks in many years.
Should still work though.
But... before I go waste time, power, etc... best to come here and learn a few things.
For one thing, I know I have some real sweet pieces of fossilized corals. And I already read they are too soft to put in a rock tumbler. I picked up assorted grits of wet sand paper, thought I'd see what I can do by hand... however, these ARE rocks. I don't know if I can polish them smooth by hand. Don't really want to blow a ton of money on tools so maybe the corals should wait?
The guy at that gem shop pointed to some of the granite pieces I had and said in a rather condescending tone, "counter top material." Well I don't care, they are pretty and pretty sure those are hard enough to start out with in the tumbler.
Then I have some I'm not sure what they are. Strange lime green veining in them.
Also... can you tumble large rocks? By "large" I mean between golf ball and base ball size? Not in MY tumbler but just wondering if those are usually polished the same way.
So see? Lots of questions. Anyway,
hi.