reynedrop
starting to spend too much on rocks
Member since February 2020
Posts: 204
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Post by reynedrop on Apr 9, 2020 20:52:45 GMT -5
When I pulled the feldspars and opal out of polish a couple weeks ago, I started on some fluorite. I followed the recipe on The Rock Shed, though honestly I suck at making things “exact” in this case (I’m very precise with baking... with rocks I’m like “eh, that’s close enough to 4tbsp”). I finally pulled out the first 1/3 or so of all the fluorite, as I dry polished in smaller batches. After coarse (which was actually 120/220), I realized some of my fluorite pieces seemed to have some quartzy spots, but I didn’t think too much about it because I was being so careful not to grind them down “too much,” checking on them frequently. When I took them out of 500, I realized the harder portions had chipped and bruised most of my pieces. Ah well. I also threw in a piece that I had included in my “first ever” coarse tumble, which meant it was put with topaz 😔. The pitting from that never did come out and frankly I didn’t want to grind the shape any further, so I left it as is. It is far, far from perfect but I love how the light passes through. Here’s that piece in different lights. And here’s the handful (literally) of other pieces from this polish run: A couple are going to my friend (the really dark purple and one that is purple/green- she picked one out rough but I cannot for the life of me figure out which one it is now because of how much it ground down).
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Post by RocksInNJ on Apr 11, 2020 11:25:38 GMT -5
That looks really nice with the light passing through it.
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Post by greig on Apr 11, 2020 11:46:58 GMT -5
You did a good job. Fluorite is difficult. On my first attempt, I made clay. Did I read correctly that you heat hardened first? I'd like to learn how to do that.
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NevadaBill
fully equipped rock polisher
Member since January 2019
Posts: 1,332
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Post by NevadaBill on Apr 12, 2020 15:29:55 GMT -5
Wow, those turned out really pretty! I like how translucent they are. And full of color too!
I don't have any experience tumbling Flourite. But it looks like it went perfect.
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reynedrop
starting to spend too much on rocks
Member since February 2020
Posts: 204
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Post by reynedrop on Apr 24, 2020 20:33:01 GMT -5
You did a good job. Fluorite is difficult. On my first attempt, I made clay. Did I read correctly that you heat hardened first? I'd like to learn how to do that. Thank you!! I followed the steps on Rock Shed, so I can't take any credit for it. They would have turned out much better if I had paid attention to the quartzy pieces or harder matrix around some of the pieces. And NOPE! That's way too advanced for me currently... I hadn't heard of it until just now The 500 was referring to grit size. I have finished the other 2/3 of the pieces. Some are a fun brown color and some have cool banding... then some are just not good at all. Crap in = crap out. I need to be choosier with my pieces!!
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Post by knave on Apr 24, 2020 21:20:42 GMT -5
Hey Reyne been awhile, good to see ya tappin’ again.
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