FLrockhound
spending too much on rocks
Member since July 2014
Posts: 343
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Post by FLrockhound on Aug 21, 2014 12:46:01 GMT -5
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Post by snowmom on Aug 21, 2014 13:04:11 GMT -5
these are corals, right? I don't know about the top and the bottom one... maybe a bit longer... or are you going for all smooth with no dings or bumps at all? nice translucent looking stuff. Still got more in the tumbler though, right? watching with interest.
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FLrockhound
spending too much on rocks
Member since July 2014
Posts: 343
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Post by FLrockhound on Aug 21, 2014 13:36:16 GMT -5
Yep, a couple of these are corals. I have a lot more still polishing for the next couple of days. A lot of the stuff I tumble has never ending dimples. The rough edges give the stones character and leave some rough spots for a different textural look. Some of the crystallized corals are always exciting to see when they're finished because of the different colors. Its like a viewing a freeze frame of when they were alive. Some are clear or reddish brown. Some have neat little formations in the middle of them when looked at closely.
If I could only take better close up pictures to post. I think a lot of people would find these pretty fascinating. Looking into these pieces are like looking into fossilized history and a different world. Needless to say I spend a lot of time inspecting them in complete awe.
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transcendental
spending too much on rocks
Member since June 2014
Posts: 459
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Post by transcendental on Aug 21, 2014 14:16:38 GMT -5
They look pretty shiny considering all the pits and porous spots, cool stuff. Bet that was fun to clean between grits
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FLrockhound
spending too much on rocks
Member since July 2014
Posts: 343
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Post by FLrockhound on Aug 21, 2014 15:16:12 GMT -5
They look pretty shiny considering all the pits and porous spots, cool stuff. Bet that was fun to clean between grits Cleaning these guys is very tedious and time consuming to say the least. Every rock big and small gets a bath and scrubbed with toothbrushes then sprayed with high pressure hose nozzle one by one. I cant get them perfectly clean but as long as I can remove stubborn grit, im happy. Here's a few more pieces of coral that I just took out of the pre-prolish in my PVC tumbler. These guys will be going into polish next week then will be referred to as Unpolishables. nestled away like a little hotdog
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transcendental
spending too much on rocks
Member since June 2014
Posts: 459
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Post by transcendental on Aug 21, 2014 17:33:11 GMT -5
Do you run these with "polishables" or wait until you have enough like these to run a batch? You'd be able to tell after 60/90 what will and what won't polish for the most part (some even before that) right?
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FLrockhound
spending too much on rocks
Member since July 2014
Posts: 343
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Post by FLrockhound on Aug 21, 2014 18:04:03 GMT -5
Yea, I will run mixed batches together. After 60-90 its pretty easy to tell which ones will need to go back or just not worth doing it again until the next batch, if having some texture will actually add to the look ill just run it once. I don't want to grind the coral down to nothing by running too long in the coarse grind and make the coral crystals unrecognizable.
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transcendental
spending too much on rocks
Member since June 2014
Posts: 459
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Post by transcendental on Aug 21, 2014 19:03:46 GMT -5
Gotcha leaving texture definitely adds to the character of the pieces. Have you posted any pics of what you consider polishable? I'd be interested to see the difference
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FLrockhound
spending too much on rocks
Member since July 2014
Posts: 343
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Post by FLrockhound on Aug 21, 2014 20:01:27 GMT -5
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transcendental
spending too much on rocks
Member since June 2014
Posts: 459
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Post by transcendental on Aug 21, 2014 23:00:20 GMT -5
Quite a difference. Each individual stone (polishable and unpolishable) is unique, very cool stuff. Thanks for sharing
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tkvancil
fully equipped rock polisher
Member since September 2011
Posts: 1,547
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Post by tkvancil on Aug 22, 2014 9:08:48 GMT -5
A lot of the coral I find here looks solid to start but has pits and voids inside. I generally try to tumble past the pits but they turn into filler and disappear eventually. I applaud your patience ... all that hand cleaning must be a pain in the rump.
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FLrockhound
spending too much on rocks
Member since July 2014
Posts: 343
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Post by FLrockhound on Aug 22, 2014 11:30:36 GMT -5
transcendental I really enjoy tumbling coral, there's so many different elements throughout the entire rock and shapes. tkvancil After closely inspecting some of my tumble coral, I quickly realized there are voids and pits throughout and would be fruitless to try to remove all the pits. When looked at closely you can see inside the rock and see a lot of different types of elements encapsulated. The hand cleaning is more a pain in the back haha. It gets monotonous but, it gives me something to do.
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