Post by RedwoodRocks on Mar 20, 2005 13:23:31 GMT -5
Hi Folks,
Here is my latest batch out of polish. The mix is primarily koi jasper/red&white jasper with some green aventurine. There are also a few stray odd balls in the batch. The polish batch was a bit larger than I thought. I wanted to use more beads than normal because I was afraid that the different colors of the Koi Jasper were a different hardness, so I wanted as much separtion as possible between the rocks.
The rest of the batch was put into the dual 3 pounder for polish. This will probably come out of polish next (I have to get to work on weekend chores and the honey due list.....yeah right)
I have been using the same formula for awhile:
Coarse - until I am happy with the shape
120/220 - one week
500 - one week
1000 - one week
Polish (cerium oxide) - one week.
In between each stage, I also clean the rocks using Ivory soap shavings. I would prefer to use Borax because Borax doesn't get all sudsy, but the Borax disappears so fast around my house, especially with two kids around. I'll have to re-package the Borax, using the red folgers container and label it - "burnishing" compound!
After coarse, the other stages could probably go less than a week, but weekends are the only time that I have time to play with the tumblers.
The first picture is about half of the batch out of the Big B.
A couple of close ups:
The last picture is the second half of the lot
Here is my latest batch out of polish. The mix is primarily koi jasper/red&white jasper with some green aventurine. There are also a few stray odd balls in the batch. The polish batch was a bit larger than I thought. I wanted to use more beads than normal because I was afraid that the different colors of the Koi Jasper were a different hardness, so I wanted as much separtion as possible between the rocks.
The rest of the batch was put into the dual 3 pounder for polish. This will probably come out of polish next (I have to get to work on weekend chores and the honey due list.....yeah right)
I have been using the same formula for awhile:
Coarse - until I am happy with the shape
120/220 - one week
500 - one week
1000 - one week
Polish (cerium oxide) - one week.
In between each stage, I also clean the rocks using Ivory soap shavings. I would prefer to use Borax because Borax doesn't get all sudsy, but the Borax disappears so fast around my house, especially with two kids around. I'll have to re-package the Borax, using the red folgers container and label it - "burnishing" compound!
After coarse, the other stages could probably go less than a week, but weekends are the only time that I have time to play with the tumblers.
The first picture is about half of the batch out of the Big B.
A couple of close ups:
The last picture is the second half of the lot
Next time I'll know better and hide the Borax before house guests arrive! ;D ;D ;D 
. but just around the house because i could never say that about him at work.
