one80mike
freely admits to licking rocks
@(-_-)@ Princess Leia!
Member since February 2007
Posts: 908
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Post by one80mike on Jan 31, 2008 22:19:18 GMT -5
Hey rockers,
I have around 30 pieces of fire agate that Brian/Beefjello sent me last year. They range in size from a small marble to 1 1/2 inches long.
The question I have is...what should or could I do with them?
I have a small tile saw, rotary tumblers, a vibe tumbler and a standard bench grinder.
The pieces look so cool but I have heard that fire agate can be a bit tricky.
Any ideas, advice or even photos would be a huge help.
Thanks in advance.
Have a top day
Mike
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Post by docone31 on Jan 31, 2008 23:30:58 GMT -5
Mike, Don't you dare tumble fire agate!
When grinding fire agate, you have to be careful on the depth of the grind. The nodules are shallow. There are some good sites on the internet on polishing them, and what to watch for. Some pieces are pretty valuable, let alone beautiful.
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Post by stoner on Jan 31, 2008 23:47:47 GMT -5
You mean he sent them to your without polishing them first?! I'll have to talk to that boy! Definitely don't tumble them. If you have a dremel and some diamond burrs, you could play with exposing the fire, but be careful, the fire layer is very thin and it's easy to burn through it. This is what you want to end up with.    |
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Roan
has rocks in the head
Member since January 2008
Posts: 600
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Post by Roan on Jan 31, 2008 23:49:46 GMT -5
Man, I am SO glad I read this before I threw my fire agates in the tumbler! Is there any way to get the smell of mineral oil off them? At least, it smells like mineral oil. The person I bought them from on eBay shipped them to me like that and I assume they did it so they would look "wet"  Eileen |
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Post by stoner on Jan 31, 2008 23:52:48 GMT -5
Try cleaning them with Simple Green.
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Post by LCARS on Feb 1, 2008 1:08:45 GMT -5
Hey, there's nothing wrong with tumbling fire agate, if you preform it first and just prepolish & polish it in the tumbler. I did over a dozen pieces this way mixed in with another load and only one chipped out because I ground it too close to the fire layer.
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rallyrocks
fully equipped rock polisher
Member since November 2005
Posts: 1,507
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Post by rallyrocks on Feb 1, 2008 1:32:44 GMT -5
I was gonna say, tumbling is one way to go, but its not like other stuff where you'd throw it in course and check in a couple weeks.
No- you'll want to keep a close eye on these if you try tumbling.
You can try doing a little rough shaping with the grinder, but be very careful about cutting into the body of the stone, as inside those bubbles is where the fire layers reside.
So when the're in course, I'd suggest pulling and checking them closely- wet, every couple of days or so, once a little of the fire starts to appear, take them out of the course, as others have mentioned, cut too deep and the fire will go away.
But if you pull them before the fire layers get completely exposed, you might be able to get a few nice pieces out of it.
After course I'd run them like any other agate, although be careful at stage 2 as well, maybe check them after a couple days there too, because 120-220 still removes quite a bit of rock.
Pre-polish and polish will run just like regular agate.
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one80mike
freely admits to licking rocks
@(-_-)@ Princess Leia!
Member since February 2007
Posts: 908
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Post by one80mike on Feb 1, 2008 23:15:09 GMT -5
Ed, those are beautiful, mate.
Most of the pieces I have seem to be white the whole way through anyway.
I may try LCARS and Rally's ideas with a few pieces and see how they go.
Thanks for the responses folks,
Mike
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Post by fishenman on Feb 12, 2008 14:18:51 GMT -5
I have found that Dawn direct foam works really good at de-greasing my rocks.
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