gem97845
starting to shine!
Member since August 2009
Posts: 47
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Post by gem97845 on Oct 20, 2009 18:31:46 GMT -5
A friend of mine gave me three garnets. They are about marble size and appear to be made up of many small garnets attached to the parent rock. He had them in his rotory tumbler, not sure how long, and they have just begun to get a little smooth.
I guess the question is, what to do with them. Is there a way to seperate the garnets from the other rock? If so, will they polish in a rotary tumbler. I haven't looked at their hardness, but I assume they are pretty hard and I can mix them with stones of the same hardness? Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Thanks for the help.
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frosty
off to a rocking start
Member since May 2009
Posts: 2
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Post by frosty on Oct 21, 2009 1:54:29 GMT -5
I've actually been tumbling garnets lately. I think they're about an 8 mohs. As I didn't have enough for a fulll batch I put them in with quartz which are softer. I left them in the rough grind till they were fairly smooth. As mine were rather small I didn't want to get too fussy or they would fade away to nothing, so I left a few pits.
Then I put them into the vibe for the other steps. They came up beautifully. So much so that I took some out to be cut.
I found that most of them separated fairly easily just with my fingernail or I used nail scissors if I was having trouble. If they didn't separate then I just left them together.
Good luck with them. It's really worthwhile having a go.
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Post by Toad on Oct 21, 2009 7:15:12 GMT -5
You could always take a chisel to the matrix rock. I never had much luck with them. Though they're hard, they tend to be brittle. But frosty seemed to do well with them - so the key is probably to get them out of the rough grind early, as she did, and into a vibe where their toughness is not as critical.
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Post by puppie96 on Oct 22, 2009 0:13:30 GMT -5
A long time ago, somebody on this board said that they used pea gravel sized garnets for fill in their tumblers. They met the need for small rocks and at the end you have nice tumbled garnets. I loved the idea and tried it. Worked great. In addition, I've done loads of garnets separately but primarily in loads of mixed rocks, sometimes other gemstones. I have somewhat of an obsession with tumbling gems.
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Post by Toad on Oct 22, 2009 7:40:11 GMT -5
The ones I tried had been large, probably about grape size. All they did was chip and fracture, but they were also in one of the first batches I tried - so probably didn't have a good mix in there with them. Maybe I'll try again.
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gem97845
starting to shine!
Member since August 2009
Posts: 47
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Post by gem97845 on Oct 22, 2009 20:39:05 GMT -5
Thanks everyone! I think I will see if I can seperate them from the matrix and then tumble them. We'll see what happens!
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Post by Toad on Oct 22, 2009 20:57:09 GMT -5
Just get as much of the matrix off as you can easily. No sense wasting a lot of time on it, when it will just come off when tumbled.
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spokanetim
has rocks in the head
Member since October 2009
Posts: 656
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Post by spokanetim on Oct 23, 2009 8:57:55 GMT -5
One month into this new hobby and I've already got two rotary tumblers and yesterday in the mail my new UV-10! I love new toys. My wife thinks I've got rocks inside my head. Anyway, it started because I have probably 30 lb's of garnets. I first tried muriatic acid (nasty stuff) to get the matrix off. It worked ok with three days soak but disposal is a pain. It took a few POUNDS of baking soda to get it ph neutral. The rotery tumbler took it off after a few days in 60-90 grit but it rounded the corners. Yesterday I threw some in the uv-10 in 120 grit and it stripped the matrix off in three hours! Crystals looked great.
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