ejs
spending too much on rocks
Member since July 2008
Posts: 478
|
Post by ejs on Jan 20, 2009 13:12:36 GMT -5
After many months of working solely on the rough stage of my tumbles, I am finally starting to get some batches completed. It's very exciting! This is a batch of quartz and citrine that I started over the summer. It is part of a larger batch that I prepared as a holiday gift for my mother-in-law. These stragglers are for me. :-) I started with so-so chunks of mostly smallish rough: pic1: I ran them through *many* 5-day rounds of 60/90 SC coarse, starting in a Lortone 6 lb. and moving to a Lortone 3 lb. Here is how they looked along the way during the coarse tumble: pic2: pic3: I wanted them to be very smooth and rounded, so I ran many rounds of coarse, about 15 all together before I finally worked my way through all the rough. From there, it went into my usual routine of 120/200 SC medium for 7 days, 10 days of 500 SC, 10 days of 1000 AO, and a 14 day polish in AO, then a few hour burnish. The results are pretty good (please forgive my sub-par photo skills): pic4: pic5: pic6: pic7: pic8: Here are some of my favorite individual rocks: pic9: pic10: The citrine has a wonderful glowing iridescence that is hard to capture on film. Here's my best attempt: pic11: pic12: Thanks for looking!
|
|
|
Post by frane on Jan 20, 2009 15:22:09 GMT -5
You sure have a lot of shine there! I really like the ones you have in Pic 9 and 10. Really cool patterns there! The clear quartz, is some of that what they call girasol opal? It looks like it has the mica play of colors in them. Great tumble over all. Fran
|
|
kev6200
starting to shine!
Stupidity should be painful!!!!
Member since January 2009
Posts: 30
|
Post by kev6200 on Jan 20, 2009 19:24:44 GMT -5
Those are cool. Can you give me some of your patience?
|
|
darrad
fully equipped rock polisher
Member since September 2006
Posts: 1,636
|
Post by darrad on Jan 20, 2009 20:27:33 GMT -5
Excellent batch and a killer shine! Some of the Citrine had some Amethyst in it (Ametrine ?) and that is always a plus in my book!
|
|
|
Post by NatureNut on Jan 20, 2009 20:41:58 GMT -5
Awesome, awesome batch, ejs. You did a great job on them and taught me alot! I'll have to take some pointers with some of my Citrine! Jo
|
|
Saskrock
fully equipped rock polisher
Member since October 2007
Posts: 1,852
|
Post by Saskrock on Jan 20, 2009 22:53:01 GMT -5
Those turned out super, great job you did.
|
|
NDK
Cave Dweller
Member since January 2009
Posts: 9,440
|
Post by NDK on Jan 20, 2009 22:53:10 GMT -5
Outstanding! Definately worth the wait!
Nate
|
|
MikeS
fully equipped rock polisher
Member since January 2009
Posts: 1,081
|
Post by MikeS on Jan 21, 2009 1:05:47 GMT -5
those are sweet! Did you collect them yourself?
|
|
rollingstone
starting to spend too much on rocks
Member since July 2009
Posts: 236
|
Post by rollingstone on Jan 21, 2009 4:34:18 GMT -5
Awesome tumble, I especially like the quartz. -Don
|
|
ejs
spending too much on rocks
Member since July 2008
Posts: 478
|
Post by ejs on Jan 21, 2009 7:26:27 GMT -5
Thanks for the kind words!
mikes: I did not collect them, and I don't recall where I purchased them from (one of the usual places).
kev: the key to my "patience" is that I'm up to 7 barrels so there is something for me to play with every day! That makes it a lot easier to leave things running for long. I'm currently using 5 barrels for rough (in 5 day cycles) and 2 barrels for medium onward.
|
|
rockerfellerz
starting to spend too much on rocks
Member since August 2008
Posts: 120
|
Post by rockerfellerz on Jan 21, 2009 8:10:20 GMT -5
Great tumble, great material, excellent shine! Real nice clarity in a lot of the clear quartz, but the citrine is my favorite.
|
|
chassroc
Cave Dweller
Rocks are abundant when you have rocktumblinghobby pals
Member since January 2005
Posts: 3,586
|
Post by chassroc on Jan 21, 2009 10:05:34 GMT -5
That's quite a lovely batch of quartz csroc
|
|
|
Post by Bikerrandy on Jan 21, 2009 10:46:59 GMT -5
Those look great!! Beautiful job
|
|
DeanW
has rocks in the head
Member since December 2007
Posts: 721
|
Post by DeanW on Jan 21, 2009 12:08:15 GMT -5
great batch - that one in pic#10 looks like it has some needle sprays inside it?
|
|