wades
starting to spend too much on rocks
Gottfried Reiche (1667-1734)
Member since February 2006
Posts: 202
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Post by wades on Mar 3, 2006 14:01:27 GMT -5
Has anyone ever tried using small garnets for fill?
I've noticed that when I break rocks with a hammer, the small bits tend to be flakes or chips, which I suspect doesn't do much for the tumbling action. I'm trying some angle-ended ceramic pellets now, but they're wearing faster than I hoped: it looks as though a pound of them will be used up after not many batches of rock.
I've noticed a few vendors selling small garnets at a price not too much more than the retail for ceramic pellets, and am wondering if garnets might not have the advantage that one would get good gems out of them in the end.
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Post by puppie96 on Mar 3, 2006 14:20:40 GMT -5
YES this was suggested by somebody a long time ago, I tried it and yes, it does work nicely, though the garnets themselves didn't last long. Since they turned into pretty little gems, though, no real problem. I do use the chips and flakes to add small sized bulk and that helps too. With ceramics, I do better with the larger ones -- cylindrical are the ones I used -- they are around a quarter inch thick more or less -- the smaller rice sized ones break down too fast.
If you've got links for places to get small garnets I'd love to have them. I had a hard time finding any when I did this and I might want to try it again.
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Post by Alice on Mar 3, 2006 15:47:03 GMT -5
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inflight22
has rocks in the head
Member since January 2006
Posts: 710
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Post by inflight22 on Mar 3, 2006 16:18:06 GMT -5
I bought some garnets off of eBay a while back, and have been using them as part of my small stones for tumbling. So far they are about pea-sized and don't look like they're going to do anything exciting.
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Post by puppie96 on Mar 3, 2006 18:49:35 GMT -5
Thanks for links. Inflight, I just kept them tumbling until they were rounded etc. like the other rocks and moved them ahead with the others, they polished beautifully. Pretty little things.
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wades
starting to spend too much on rocks
Gottfried Reiche (1667-1734)
Member since February 2006
Posts: 202
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Post by wades on Mar 3, 2006 19:07:39 GMT -5
Those are priced by the 1/4 pound. It could get steep fast. I've found that there seems to be an article of commerce called "garnet gravel," which apparently is used in water purifiers. Come to think of it there must be some kind of bulk garnet used in the abrasives industry. Though you probably have to buy by the truckload. I'm thinking that if you could get a bucket of the kind of stuff they make sandpaper out of, in pea-to-bean sized bits, even if 99% got pounded to sand in the coarse grind it might be worthwhile. What're "seam garnets?" |
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Post by Alice on Mar 4, 2006 0:29:53 GMT -5
If you're ever near lake George there's a garnet mine about an hour away.
Stefan aslo said not to bother going to the mine because gravel parking lots often have garnet mixed in with the gravel.
I haven't gone there yet, but it might be work picking through gravel if your over that way.
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Rockygibraltar
fully equipped rock polisher
Member since February 2006
Posts: 1,404
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Post by Rockygibraltar on Mar 4, 2006 0:35:11 GMT -5
Here are some Amandine Garnets that I tumbled a few years ago. I ran them along with some agate. They came out nicely. They aren't big but there is almost no waste and have a nice gemmy look and feel. I bought them at Berg's rock shop, they have them for $6 a pound. Here is a link, scroll down and you will see them. www.bergsrockshop.com/cgi-bin/product.php?item=Rough%20Rocks%20to%20tumble |
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