Hefty's '23 Contest Tumble Log (picture heavy)

Chiming in...

Down to the last stretch...

Rinsed in borax for 24 hrs and used the waterpic to detail rinse the rocks. I'm pushing on to 500 grit.

Again, rocks are not perfect but look pretty when wet.

After looking at hefty's last pics. Mine have the same crescent fractures, some are rough in spots and a few have larger cracks/pits. I've only tumbled mine in a rotary tumbler...with small ceramics from day one. My rocks are getting pretty small...compared to starting size.

Up until now..I've just followed the steps I knew. Now, I'm a bit nervous about the polish. Aluminum oxide? Tin oxide? I'm sure there is others out there....what's best?

I still haven’t set up my cloudinary account. I did just post some photos over on Reddit though. I’ll try to get them here shortly.

Most of mine are now finished and man they are shiny! Unfortunately a lot of them chipped in stage 4 and so now I’m going to have to choose the best of the worst to submit. I still have two large pieces that are still in stage 1 but I doubt they will be done in time or be crack free.

Good Luck!

Reminds me of one of those amateur chefs on the cooking contest shows who decides to mix it up late in the clock and try something new and different.

What will the judges have to say about that!

I associate foam in slurry with protein content of any sort. The foam you see in streams and rivers is basically proteins from partially broken down organics. So the karosyrup, being a vegetable based organic, will also have certain protein/compounds within it, especially if it gets watered down and agitated (same idea as a stream does to decaying leaves for example) A lot of my drums that I open, they also have foam just like in your photo. You should keep extensive notes on everything you tumble, especially anything that is new. That’s one of the things you’re doing here in this thread, btw, focused on this contest rock. The ‘new” could be new rough or something new within the “recipe” you use. Or even the media you use to surround the rock you’re tumbling. I am far from anything like an expert with tumbling rocks or tumbling petrified wood, but I’ve found that often times, what I use as “pellets” to cushion the rock seems to have a significant effect on the quality of the end result. Why this is so, I am not sure, I only know that sometimes, ceramic pellets don’t seem to be a good choice, while maybe pea gravel might result in a much higher quality tumble. And I know that petrified wood has a lot of variation within rock from the same location, even within the same petrified log or branch. There is nothing consistent with the rock itself, which is why it’s a great choice to use for a contest. It’s all beautiful rock, and it’s also really tough to produce polished rock without flaws in it. No matter where it comes from. Does anyone here not agree to this? I keep a pretty extensive journal/diary of my tumbles as I go along. If nothing else, the writing/typing really helps me learn and store info in to my damaged brain cells, which believe me need all the help they can get!

I’ve been enjoying this post @hefty ! Enough so that my wife and I just decided to try the contest out next year, if possible. Much appreciated and good luck!

Hmmm...I tried the cloudinary upload and it says upload preset failed. Any ideas?

Looking good from here! Nice job!

I don’t expect to be anywhere near the top 3, mine were sent in a few weeks ago. One thing I will add: it is for sure some of the most beautiful petrified wood I have ever tumbled. I go in to a bit of a fugue-state every time I look at the rocks that stayed home with me. I think, I would make a guess, it’s from Saddle Mountain. But I don’t know for sure.