Post by Peruano on Nov 8, 2016 14:24:20 GMT -5
I have some staurolite crosses collected in Northern New Mexico which I would like to tumble to clean up a bit. I'm not really trying to polish them (although that would be nice), but they do need to have some of the mica and grit like matrix that covers them removed. I've actually tried using a dental pick and a wire brush on my bench grinder with some success, but tumbling would be oh so nice if I can develop a strategy. Staurolite has a hardness of 6.5 - 7.0 but the one time I threw one into a batch of agates, I wore away most of the cross in the vibratory tumbler (ran the whole sequence). Something less or a pure batch of staurolite is called for. I'll try to add photos of the rough crosses later today. Thanks in advance for any guidance.
Here are a couple clean up by hand.
But they started out like this.
I have started a small batch in the minisonic with 220 grit and a few small ceramics to get in the small spaces. I'll monitor carefully to try to prevent total erosion of the details.
Here are a couple clean up by hand.
But they started out like this.
I have started a small batch in the minisonic with 220 grit and a few small ceramics to get in the small spaces. I'll monitor carefully to try to prevent total erosion of the details.
Maybe you can post some pictures here