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Post by pebblesky on Oct 28, 2023 22:41:12 GMT -5
A fossil coral piece after stage 1: A zoomed-in view. Quite interesting structure that my naked eye couldn't capture: Will take pictures of it after being polished for comparison.
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Post by jasoninsd on Oct 29, 2023 12:08:44 GMT -5
Great looking coral piece PS!! I love seeing the macro shots! It really shows the "microcosm" happening within these beauties!
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choochoorocks
starting to spend too much on rocks
Rock hounding
Member since April 2020
Posts: 176
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Post by choochoorocks on Nov 9, 2023 0:52:29 GMT -5
Cool, looks like cell structure!
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Post by pebblesky on Nov 19, 2023 15:03:33 GMT -5
For this batch I have decided to adjust my process after step 1, which is vibe with 120-220 for 4 days, and vibe with polish for 2 days.
I skipped 500 because: 1. It did not seem to work well with my vibe bowl and always left black residues at the bottom of the bowl (and even on some softer rocks) that are very hard to clean up. 2. I did unintentionally skipped 500 last year and the result didn't seem to be different from the other batches that I strictly followed 120/220, 500 and polish.
After 12 hours of vibe polishing I took one jasper out and wiped it dry. It seemed to be very shiny already. Some other more challenging rocks might still need more time, but my experience with them is they will not end up as shiny as the easy rocks anyway, no matter how long they are in the vibe.
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Post by pebblesky on Nov 21, 2023 12:29:13 GMT -5
Just finished my batch with a relatively shorter cycle. washing the rocks always took too long. Hopefully I will have some pictures today.
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Post by pebblesky on Nov 22, 2023 1:44:07 GMT -5
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Post by pebblesky on Dec 4, 2023 23:55:27 GMT -5
Some of the finished fossil coral tumbles from the latest batch: One of the pieces that was shown after stage 1: Zooming in: The other side:
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Post by pebblesky on Dec 4, 2023 23:57:26 GMT -5
Close-ups of some other pieces: Another piece: Another one:
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Post by pebblesky on Dec 5, 2023 0:07:33 GMT -5
Acquired some new material for tumbling: Something called "Mongolian banded agate". The red ones look similar to some of the Swazi agates. I hand-picked a few of them with very few fractures to tumble (as shown in the picture). Those with deep fractures will better be broken down to even smaller pieces as fillers.
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Post by Son Of Beach on Dec 5, 2023 0:31:54 GMT -5
That first coral is off the charts, awesome find
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Post by jasoninsd on Dec 5, 2023 0:57:36 GMT -5
That picture of the new tumbling rough has some amazing pieces in it!! This coral is OFF THE CHARTS!!
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Post by pebblesky on Dec 5, 2023 13:37:42 GMT -5
That first coral is off the charts, awesome find Thanks! I didn't find them by myself. Judging by the shapes and the thicknesses of the roughs, I guess they are the end cuts of some fossil coral slabs from Indonesia. Relatively easy for tumble, since the undercut didn't happen too often. That picture of the new tumbling rough has some amazing pieces in it!! This coral is OFF THE CHARTS!! I love this piece too, although one white flower pattern undercuts, this piece stands out with high contrast in colors. Hope to find more pieces like this...
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Post by Starguy on Dec 5, 2023 14:26:39 GMT -5
The tumbled corals are exceptional. They look like they were pretty difficult to polish. The Mongolian agates look like fun too. Looking forward to seeing more of them. Thanks for showing.
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Post by pebblesky on Dec 5, 2023 19:30:04 GMT -5
The tumbled corals are exceptional. They look like they were pretty difficult to polish. The Mongolian agates look like fun too. Looking forward to seeing more of them. Thanks for showing. Yeah it seems these Indonesian fossil coral are mostly agatized, and they do well when tumbling with other hard rocks. They are a relatively easy tumble and show very few fractures once done. There are some natural holes and pits but since most of these holes are around the white flower area, I don't even notice or care about the white polish residue. I might have complained too much about the white polish residue on my polished green moss agates, after trying quite some ways to get rid of them.
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Post by pebblesky on Dec 5, 2023 19:46:50 GMT -5
There is a type of agate called "Gobi Gold Coin Eye Agate" which are most admired by their natural/raw form, for example the ones shown below from the internet: I don't own any of these naturally intriguing pieces. All I own was small pieces with earthy yellow and "featureless", to be polite, crusts. So I tossed them into the tumbler. I didn't even bother taking the before picture. And here are some of them coming out of stage 1 after one week. They suddenly look VERY interesting to me: I regret not taking the before picture. I would love to get more roughs that could become something like these. I absolutely don't care if they are in their raw form or not. Next up, we will see how they would polish. I would use my usual recipe for them with my other agates/jaspers, 2 days in 120/220, 2 days in 500, and 2 days in polish.
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Post by Starguy on Dec 5, 2023 21:35:25 GMT -5
Those Gobi agates look really cool. I saw something in one of your earlier photos that initially made me think Gobi agate. Now you post these. That’s funny. Here’s what I saw.
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Post by pebblesky on Dec 5, 2023 22:34:09 GMT -5
Oh you have good eyes Starguy. That one is indeed a Gobi eye agate, with all the eyes missing: It looks miserable, so I put some small Gobi agates into those "orbits".
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Post by pebblesky on Dec 5, 2023 22:34:39 GMT -5
I actually found one small piece of Gobi Gold Coin eye agate that would better be left alone:
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Post by Son Of Beach on Dec 5, 2023 23:16:56 GMT -5
Oh you have good eyes Starguy . That one is indeed a Gobi eye agate, with all the eyes missing: It looks miserable, so I put some small Gobi agates into those "orbits". That rock kind of bothers me, visually disturbing I think. Unnatural maybe...
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Post by pebblesky on Dec 7, 2023 1:28:23 GMT -5
One tumble-polished petrified wood piece from my recent batch. This one has vibrant colors. It easily stands out before and after the tumbling.
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