hplcman
spending too much on rocks
Looking forward to my Friday Night Barrel Clean out!
Member since August 2022
Posts: 494
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Post by hplcman on Sept 23, 2023 12:18:48 GMT -5
I updated some photos in the first post of this thread, if you want to check them out!
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hplcman
spending too much on rocks
Looking forward to my Friday Night Barrel Clean out!
Member since August 2022
Posts: 494
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Post by hplcman on Sept 26, 2023 9:04:33 GMT -5
Hello! So here’s a photo of the progress after about 3.5 days in AO polish. I’ll continue to add photos every few days at the end of this thread (to make it easier to jump to) and will try to photograph this obsidian chunk with a dry side and wet side, so as to compare the state of the polish.
Already I’m excited about the polish level on this chunk. I’m surprised it has as much shine as it does after only a couple days…. I hope it continues to improve to the point where it’s hard to tell the difference between the dry and wet sides…. What so you think??? 😂
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aGates
has rocks in the head
Building a silver studio
Member since January 2021
Posts: 518
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Post by aGates on Sept 26, 2023 10:06:34 GMT -5
Yeah that's coming along nicely. Good job!
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iamchris
has rocks in the head
Member since June 2023
Posts: 722
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Post by iamchris on Sept 29, 2023 11:46:08 GMT -5
I appreciate the multitude of updates here. Thank you for sharing!
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hplcman
spending too much on rocks
Looking forward to my Friday Night Barrel Clean out!
Member since August 2022
Posts: 494
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Post by hplcman on Sept 29, 2023 12:08:05 GMT -5
I appreciate the multitude of updates here. Thank you for sharing! Thanks for the feedback. I worry that I'm overdoing it, but then I think, "I would have liked to see this post before tumbling obsidian" and that makes me feel better. I'm glad you're enjoying it! |
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hplcman
spending too much on rocks
Looking forward to my Friday Night Barrel Clean out!
Member since August 2022
Posts: 494
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Post by hplcman on Sept 29, 2023 16:11:17 GMT -5
Hello! Here’s another photograph of the progress after 7 days tumbling in AO polish. Again with the wet and dry sides. This was taken in sunlight, so its a little different than the previous photograph... It looks shinier and smoother than the picture is showing, I think. I’m trying to figure out what’s going on here… I don’t know of those are little bruises or if something else is going on…. Any ideas? I'll take another photo under different light. I’m letting it tumble for another 7 days, keep an eye out for a final update then!  So I’m much less worried after looking more closely at the hunk and snapping a few more pictures. I think the grainy aspect of the sunlight photo is actually part of the microcrystalline structure of the obsidian. Taking more pictures at a sharper angle shows little to no imperfections on the surface of this hunk. You can see the sky and clouds reflecting off the surface, which was reassuring to me. These photos are taken of the completely dry surface. Thanks for looking!    |
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Post by jasoninsd on Sept 29, 2023 20:55:28 GMT -5
Those last couple pics really make it look like a fantastic polish! Way to go on that bad boy!!  |
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doublebluff
having dreams about rocks
Member since September 2021
Posts: 60
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Post by doublebluff on Oct 12, 2023 11:36:23 GMT -5
Your progress has been fun to follow. Thanks for posting!
You have formed a very nice stone, well done.
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Post by Lazy Perfectionist on Oct 13, 2023 11:04:15 GMT -5
It's turning out great! I started tumbling (starting with obsidian) for a year now, and am still struggling to get that perfect polish. Even using a vibratory tumbler, my polished obsidian looks like yours - awesome indoors, but hazy with a very bright light or sunshine. I can get rid of it with manual polishing (using a flat lap), so it's not a problem with the obsidian itself. I wish I could solve this. It's not such a big deal on lighter colored pieces like yours, but some need that bright light to be able to see the sheen, fire, rainbow, etc.
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hplcman
spending too much on rocks
Looking forward to my Friday Night Barrel Clean out!
Member since August 2022
Posts: 494
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Post by hplcman on Oct 13, 2023 11:16:28 GMT -5
It's turning out great! I started tumbling (starting with obsidian) for a year now, and am still struggling to get that perfect polish. Even using a vibratory tumbler, my polished obsidian looks like yours - awesome indoors, but hazy with a very bright light or sunshine. I can get rid of it with manual polishing (using a flat lap), so it's not a problem with the obsidian itself. I wish I could solve this. It's not such a big deal on lighter colored pieces like yours, but some need that bright light to be able to see the sheen, fire, rainbow, etc. It's a tough rock to get looking perfect, that's for sure! |
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hplcman
spending too much on rocks
Looking forward to my Friday Night Barrel Clean out!
Member since August 2022
Posts: 494
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Post by hplcman on Oct 13, 2023 12:29:47 GMT -5
Hello! Well. this is the final update. I pulled the obsidian chunk this morning, burnished it with ivory soap for about an hour, and this is the result. Is it perfect? No. Am I happy with it? HECK YES!!!As you can see from the post above at about 7 days of polish in AO I had some concerns. The pictures in the sunlight looked less than optimal. But the surface at a more oblique angle looked great, in my opinion. At this time the barrel was ~50% full of ceramics and this rock. At that point I remembered reading a post on here where someone recommended that, at polish, the barrel should be at 80 - 90% full. I guess the movement is much gentler and there's a lot if cushioning. Thinking about it makes a lot of sense. Instead of the rocks tumbling, they're just kind of shifting around a little. The action in this situation seems to be more like what's happening in a vibratory tumbler maybe? So at day 7 I added enough small and medium ceramics (that had already been through the polish stages) to bring the barrel up to about 80%. I added more water and another 1/4 cup of AO polish and let that tumble for 14 days. I didn't check in on it at all. I was discouraged and worried there wouldn't be any improvements. I pulled it this morning, and these are the results! Thank you for helping me out on this journey. I spent months working on this rock, and your comments and advice were all helpful and kept my spirits up! I'm taking a break from obsidian for a while. I'm already looking forward to applying what I learned with this piece to some BEAUTIFUL velvet obsidian I bought from lapidarycentral ! Thank you and have a great day, Justin          |
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aGates
has rocks in the head
Building a silver studio
Member since January 2021
Posts: 518
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Post by aGates on Oct 14, 2023 14:14:33 GMT -5
You got your goal. It looks wet when it is dry. That's a beautiful job. Well done
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Post by Starguy on Oct 15, 2023 1:09:52 GMT -5
That turned out amazing. You really worked some magic on that piece. Thanks for all the updates.
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michiganpebbler
spending too much on rocks
Member since April 2023
Posts: 344 
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Post by michiganpebbler on Oct 15, 2023 8:48:13 GMT -5
 Oh my!!! And I have no idea why, but I just heard a southern belle say “well I do declare, that is a beauty!” LOL Kidding aside, what a spectacular job you did with that! It’s a real stunner.  |
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hplcman
spending too much on rocks
Looking forward to my Friday Night Barrel Clean out!
Member since August 2022
Posts: 494
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Post by hplcman on Oct 16, 2023 9:43:09 GMT -5
You got your goal. It looks wet when it is dry. That's a beautiful job. Well done Thank you! I think I could have let it run longer at stage 2, just to get some of the deeper scratches and pits out... That would have added a lot more time and I just wanted to see if I could get a nice shine on it, so had to be ok with those imperfections. I really learned a lot and look forward to tumbling more obsidian in the future! |
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hplcman
spending too much on rocks
Looking forward to my Friday Night Barrel Clean out!
Member since August 2022
Posts: 494
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Post by hplcman on Oct 16, 2023 9:44:07 GMT -5
That turned out amazing. You really worked some magic on that piece. Thanks for all the updates. Thank you! I enjoyed making the updates, and I hope people find it useful! |
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hplcman
spending too much on rocks
Looking forward to my Friday Night Barrel Clean out!
Member since August 2022
Posts: 494
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Post by hplcman on Oct 16, 2023 9:47:46 GMT -5
Oh my!!! And I have no idea why, but I just heard a southern belle say “well I do declare, that is a beauty!” LOL Kidding aside, what a spectacular job you did with that! It’s a real stunner.  Thank you so much!!! Even with the imperfections in this rock I absolutely love the polish! I pull it off the shelf and just stare at it sometimes. I'm really looking forward to applying what I learned to some velvet obsidian I have. Have a great day! |
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Post by velodromed on Oct 22, 2023 6:34:23 GMT -5
Your obsidian looks very nice man! You’ve done a good job. So… what’s next? Do you have any other rocks tumbling or future plans in place??
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hplcman
spending too much on rocks
Looking forward to my Friday Night Barrel Clean out!
Member since August 2022
Posts: 494
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Post by hplcman on Oct 31, 2023 10:51:34 GMT -5
Your obsidian looks very nice man! You’ve done a good job. So… what’s next? Do you have any other rocks tumbling or future plans in place?? Thank you! I'm looking forward to tumbling more obsidian in the future... Right now I'm tumbling a bunch of different stuff (I need some variety, after essentially tumbling only 1 rock for the last 2 months!). I have some crazy lace, swazi agate, fancy jasper, Sonoma County beach rocks, agua nueva agate, flower agate and some rutillated quartz all tumbling together... Quite the mix, but it's exciting to do cleanouts! I went to the Rock Shop in Vacaville this weekend (they're having a 50% off sale) and bought some nice India moss agate, some blue lace agate, some fire carnelian agate and a hunk of mahogany obsidian (oh no!!!). I'm looking forward to working those into the mix as well... What are you working on? Anything exciting??? |
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Post by velodromed on Oct 31, 2023 13:47:04 GMT -5
Your obsidian looks very nice man! You’ve done a good job. So… what’s next? Do you have any other rocks tumbling or future plans in place?? Thank you! I'm looking forward to tumbling more obsidian in the future... Right now I'm tumbling a bunch of different stuff (I need some variety, after essentially tumbling only 1 rock for the last 2 months!). I have some crazy lace, swazi agate, fancy jasper, Sonoma County beach rocks, agua nueva agate, flower agate and some rutillated quartz all tumbling together... Quite the mix, but it's exciting to do cleanouts! I went to the Rock Shop in Vacaville this weekend (they're having a 50% off sale) and bought some nice India moss agate, some blue lace agate, some fire carnelian agate and a hunk of mahogany obsidian (oh no!!!). I'm looking forward to working those into the mix as well... What are you working on? Anything exciting??? I just got my tumblers back up and running after having them down for a week while moving. I have a good amount I’m working on in the vibe and a bunch still in the rotary tumblers. I also just started an experiment using 60 grit AO, the kind meant for sandblasting, in the Rebel 17 with a load of local jasper and other rock. |
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