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Post by snowmom on May 11, 2014 8:13:43 GMT -5
One of the cool things I am finding this area has to offer is a huge variety of brilliantly colored , swirled,marble. I am in love with the colors, and would love to have an endless row of color samples, but have no idea if it is possible to tumble marble? I know it is quite soft.. would hand grinding and polishing be better? I did one completely by hand with sandpaper and it smoothed very rapidly but I did not have the patience to go for the final polish. advice? sample photos? thanks in advance for your input! |
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The Dad_Ohs
fully equipped rock polisher
Take me to your Labradorite!!
Member since September 2012
Posts: 1,860
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Post by The Dad_Ohs on May 11, 2014 13:31:26 GMT -5
Hi, Snowmom! Welcome to the forum!!
Marble can be tumbled in a rotary or vibe tumbler or even worked by hand, but as you have seen 1st hand, is time consuming to work by hand.
If you are going to tumble it, because it is a softer material, as long as you keep it with equally soft materials, will tumble easily.
Requiring less time per grit to shape the material the same way you would tumble a harder material like agate.
The only difference is that some marble does not get that high gloss that you would get from a harder material like agate, but instead gives a soft warmer glow. It's this glow that has drawn people to work marble because it looks warm and almost alive as opposed to agate which is a colder, but shinier, material when polished.
As you work with the different types of marble that are available, you will learn which has more shine to the finished product and which has more glow to it. I love to work with marble and make cabochons from it from time to time. I bought a bag of landscaping, white, marble chunks at Lowes and tumbled some of it and it came out very nice looking in my vibe tumbler. I have not doe a lot of tumbling recently due to health reasons but I am slowly working my way back into it. I always try to post pics of everything I tumble and when I get another batch done will gladly post pictures of it too.
Basically, if you want to do a large quantity of marble, a tumbler, rotary or vibe, is a must.
If you want to take the time to shape each stone to give it individual character, hand work is the way to go. Although once you get the shape you want, a vibe tumbler may be the way to go to finish/polish it and will give you the flexibility to finish multiple pieces at the same time as a vibe tumbler removes less material than a rotary tumbler allowing a piece to better retain it's overall shape with only light roounding to the edges and smoothness to the surface.
Other than that I'm sure others will have more or better info to give you. I tend to ramble!! LOL
Either way, best of luck to you!!
p.s.....
What area are you in that has an abundance of marble variety to it?
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Post by snowmom on May 11, 2014 13:53:31 GMT -5
thanks for the info Dad_Ohs I am in northeastern lower Michigan.. east side of the state at the tip of the mitten, and right on Lake Huron. The marble I find is no doubt brought here by glaciers, mostly little rocks, 3 lb or smaller, but some large beauties I could have cried about firmly sticking up from the lake at different places I have been.(from 20 lb-ers to hundreds of pounds, I am sure. I find it on land all over, too, as well as lots of granite and by volume tons more limestone which is the only native stone not brought here by the formation of the great lakes and the advancing and receding action of the glaciers. So as far as I know none of it is native to the area except by transport of the glaciers. Stockpiling my little glacier worn rainbow of pieces for now and preparing to purchase or have my husband build (!) a tumbler or two. Trying to gain knowledge so I am ready to jump right in when I have the equipment I need. thanks again.
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Post by Jugglerguy on May 11, 2014 14:10:42 GMT -5
Hey Snowmom, could you post a picture of this rock? I'm pretty sure it's not marble. I've never heard of marble being found around here. My wife teaches Earth science and my daughter just got third place in the state in the rocks and minerals event in Science Olympiad. Since they both know more about rock identification than I do, I just asked them and they don't think there is marble around here either. You've really got me curious.
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Deleted
Deleted Member
Member since January 1970
Posts: 0
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Post by Deleted on May 11, 2014 14:38:50 GMT -5
yes, sample images of the stone. You have Rob jones'ing for brilliantly colored swirly stones!
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Post by Jugglerguy on May 11, 2014 15:00:47 GMT -5
We've been speculating here and can't come up with anything big, soft, swirly and colorful.
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Post by snowmom on May 11, 2014 17:41:24 GMT -5
well I knew I came to the right place when I joined up here. I need a rock guru, no make that lots of rock gurus, I know you guys will set me straight! I don't have an image sharing site yet, so somebody will need to let me send them an email with the images so they can be posted here? I can see I will need to sign up for an image saving site... do y'all have preferences as to which site works best interacting with this forum?
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Post by snowmom on May 11, 2014 18:19:11 GMT -5
ok trying to post a html link to images of those colored stones... now I am wondering... chert? mudstones? the one in the upper right corner is the one I smoothed with sandpaper. I have covered them all with polyvinyl coating so they look wet, the better to show off their color (since I don't have a tumbler, I had to do a poor persons cheat) It will come right off with a hot water and sudsy ammonia soak.  may have to take a tutorial on how to download the photos onto this site now. hmmm |
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Post by Jugglerguy on May 11, 2014 20:29:32 GMT -5
It's hard to tell from your pictures and with the coating on them. I'm also not very good at identifying rocks. The one on the upper right looks like quartz to me, but quartz is pretty hard. The upper left rock looks sort of like granite. I'm really not sure about the other two, but they're not marble. I find all sorts of rocks up in Lake Superior. If they look good to me, I bring them home and throw them in the tumbler. Some turn out great, others don't. The more I do, the better idea I have of what works and what doesn't. I'd throw all of those in a tumbler and see what happens.
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Post by snowmom on May 12, 2014 5:22:24 GMT -5
thanks, I spent the night waking up thinking about this. the bottom left one might be a worn granite since it seems to be a bit foliated in the black banding, the others don't seem granular at all , more microcrystalline/quartzite, but whats with the streaks and banding tendencies? metamorphosed sedimentary rock?
I think something that throws me off is the surface wear, since glaciers, time, water have all worked on them to alter them, and the inside may not look at all like the surface. they are all harder than my steel knife which leaves silver streaks on them but doesn't mark them. I will have to wait until I get that tumbler, spouse has a rock chisel which I may borrow and attempt to open them to see their "real" selves inside. looking at the pictures I can see the yellow stain 3 of them have picked up from sitting in the iron laden water. i'll try not to drive everybody crazy with "whats this" questions now I can post pictures, LOL.
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