april
off to a rocking start
Member since November 2018
Posts: 9
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Post by april on Nov 10, 2018 18:58:50 GMT -5
Hello! I always colected rocks in my trips, but this time there were so many, that I decided to buy a rock tumbler to try polishing them.
So, as I'm new here, I wanted some advice on rocks idwntofication, which rocks to tumble first, and which ones are not worth tumbling at all... I also like them as they are, so wouldn't want to turn them to dust by accident:)) I sorted the rocks by color/type and here is what I have.
First photo, I have a bunch of white-pinkish-beige glass-like ones (mostly on the left), is it quartz? It seems to scratch glass, so is it 7? On the rhs there is a bunch of speckled white-pinkish-blackish bone-like rocks, with lots of dots and cracks.. What is it? Feldspar? Can/should I tumble those?
Second picture, grey and pink rocks, with some greenish/yellowish.. most are very smooth to the touch. Have no idea what those are:) and they all seem different, can I tumble them all together? There is one on the far right thst has some imprint. Should/can I tumble it taking into account there are holes? Won't it be ruined? And the last picture. Here, on the left, there are some rocks that are magnetic: black ones with greenish sparkles in them, and brown with black are strongly magnetic. The three on top: silver "coin" and 2 others are weakly magnetic. Black should be magnesite by description with hardness of 6, but it also scratches glass, so is it a 7 or is scratching glass not a valid test? Can I tumble magnesite?
Then, there are other dark grey-black rocks and red rocks, some of them really smooth, some seem porous.. The grey at the bottom is granite, right? Any ideas what are the rest? Also, some general questions: 1) Can I tumble flat pebbles? Some of them are really thin, won't they break? 2) Should I start from Stage 2 since these are all collected at the beach and mostly smooth/round already? 3) How to check the hardness - I don't have any special tools now. What is the critical threshold, so that I could tumble different rocks togeher?
Really appreciate any advice! April
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Post by pauls on Nov 10, 2018 20:29:33 GMT -5
Hi April Welcome from Australia The rocks in your first photo look to be all Quartz, they should tumble well.
I would put them all in the first stage for a week or two and see how they come out, don't skip the first stage, your rocks are rounded but not really smooth at all. There are some on the left hand side of the second photo that may be shale or sandstone and wont come to anything much. But thats only from the photo, put them in and see. Good luck, enjoy yourself
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Post by aDave on Nov 10, 2018 23:48:49 GMT -5
If you want to figure hardness, do a Google search for the Mohs scale and how to figure out the hardness of different rocks. You'll get a bunch of info, but it will ultimately mean that you'll have to test all of your rocks in order to determine hardness.
Frankly, with what you have, I'd have no issue with simply throwing stuff in a barrel and seeing what happens. I'm one of those tumblers who will throw anything in a barrel, simply to see what happens. If some of your rocks disappear, they probably wouldn't have taken a shine anyway. If you have material that sticks around, it's probably pretty hard and will probably shine up quite nicely.
Granted, I'm not at the point of doing "unknowns." I'm usually tumbling agates and jaspers, so I know what to expect. Probably not the answer you were looking for, but I'd say to throw all of that stuff together and simply see what happens.
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april
off to a rocking start
Member since November 2018
Posts: 9
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Post by april on Nov 13, 2018 16:40:11 GMT -5
Thank you for the advice. I decided to get almost all rocks from photo 1 first (except for those that turned out to be too soft - used steel fork to scratch).
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april
off to a rocking start
Member since November 2018
Posts: 9
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Post by april on Nov 12, 2020 15:32:17 GMT -5
And here is the result of my first batch:) I love the pink one, where I can see inside the rock. Some of the quartz turned out clear like glass, which is also cool. Onthe last photo the rocks that were obviously too soft.
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Post by pauls on Nov 12, 2020 15:44:25 GMT -5
That's a really good job on those stones April.
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Post by jasoninsd on Nov 12, 2020 20:03:38 GMT -5
April those are really looking great!!!
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