rrod
having dreams about rocks
Member since December 2020
Posts: 72
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Post by rrod on Feb 5, 2021 21:19:20 GMT -5
Late to the party so sure I got the bottom shelf hooch: Softish stuff so going to be interesting…
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Wooferhound
Cave Dweller
Lortone QT66 and 3A
Member since December 2016
Posts: 1,423
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Post by Wooferhound on Feb 6, 2021 6:52:42 GMT -5
Some of my worry now though is that I'll confuse my contest rocks with others. I used filler rock from my local river that is full of Brown Chert that is excessively hard, with a pleasant color but they don't have any character , just Plain Brown.
They are slow to grind down and easy to tell it apart from the Target rocks. The Contest Rocks have big color and texture differences, like they are from a Mix of rough.
I have a dual 6 Pound tumbler and I am currently rolling 2 batches of rocks that I want to keep clearly separated from any filler rocks. The other batch are rocks from my Christmas vacation in Yuma Arizona. Am using some Black Countertop material that I busted up for filler in that barrel.
My contest rocks looked Hard like Flint but after 2 weeks I have chosen a slower stage 1 grind.
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bourbon13
off to a rocking start
Member since January 2021
Posts: 10
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Post by bourbon13 on Feb 13, 2021 10:00:04 GMT -5
I just started a batch of contest rocks and the red w/yellow seem to chip and break off quite a bit. I don't know much about this rock but some seem to have a lot of pin sized holes in them(most of the yellow ones). The greyish and darker colored ones seem to be the ones that will tumble best. I don't think this is going to end well for me as this seems to be a pretty poor rock but like I said I am not well versed in this stone or have enough experience in determining the end result with this. I should have said the almost red ones with a little yellow are the ones are the one that seem to be falling apart, it almost reminds me of the red clay we have here when it get wet and then drys out.
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Wooferhound
Cave Dweller
Lortone QT66 and 3A
Member since December 2016
Posts: 1,423
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Post by Wooferhound on Feb 13, 2021 11:01:18 GMT -5
Have never seen or heard of this rock, it was hard to determine a good tumbling strategy just by looking and touching it. Now that I've rolled it for 3 weeks, I can tell there would be a different method if I rolled these rocks again.
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Post by miket on Feb 13, 2021 13:20:44 GMT -5
Yikes. I filled both barrels on my 33b and I'm not opening it until Friday, which will be 2 weeks in coarse. We'll see...
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Post by stephan on Feb 17, 2021 0:02:51 GMT -5
Wooferhound bourbon13 rrod Burris Creek feeds Black Butte Reservoir from the South, so the material is often referred to as Black Butte jasper, especially if harvested near the lake. There is lots of beautiful material there — mostly brecciated, sometimes or ocular. The quality is highly variable, especially the yellow. Some is harder than Hell, some is soft and punky, sometimes within millimeters. Pin-holes and unsealed fractures are common. I’ve only cabbed the material, with very inconsistent results. Great material can be found when hounding, but what people have posted looks like it was hounded with a back-hoe.
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Post by miket on Feb 17, 2021 10:28:39 GMT -5
Wooferhound bourbon13 rrod Burris Creek feeds Black Butte Reservoir from the South, so the material is often referred to as Black Butte jasper, especially if harvested near the lake. There is lots of beautiful material there — mostly brecciated, sometimes or ocular. The quality is highly variable, especially the yellow. Some is harder than Hell, some is soft and punky, sometimes within millimeters. Pin-holes and unsealed fractures are common. I’ve only cabbed the material, with very inconsistent results. Great material can be found when hounding, but what people have posted looks like it was hounded with a back-hoe. I have to agree concerning the rocks I received. Yeah, I peeked, I couldn't wait until Friday. Not much progress in my 33b yet, but from what I could see I might get 6 or 7 decent rocks out of the bunch. We'll see.
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NRG
fully equipped rock polisher
Member since February 2018
Posts: 1,630
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Post by NRG on Feb 17, 2021 22:43:01 GMT -5
I ran a year's worth of contests. Under my old Avatar. Then I got busy at work and had to stop.
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NRG
fully equipped rock polisher
Member since February 2018
Posts: 1,630
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Post by NRG on Feb 17, 2021 22:48:57 GMT -5
Geez, seeing the rough people are receiving... that is just plain mean. Did they select the material by backhoe? I've collected at Burris Creek. Some nice stuff is available, but I'm seeing little of it. paintbiscuit you might have better luck finding fossils (seriously) in the rocks you posted than tumbling them. Good luck, all. Well, having run a similar contest I will chime in here for some perspective. If you send high end Agates or bloodstone, or some other common yet high quality material, then everyone will send in near perfect stones for judging. If they send in challenging materials, then some luck of the draw is involved but more importantly the skills really start to shine. They did obsidian but Chuck and Rob and many others polish that in their sleep. So now they send lower grades and it will be easier to tease out a winner. The downside is people whine about the materials as they don't care about the judges dilemma.
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mikeydbd
starting to shine!
Member since October 2020
Posts: 39
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Post by mikeydbd on Feb 18, 2021 9:19:40 GMT -5
I have been tumbling mine for nearly 5 weeks in stage 1. I do notice a lot of pin holes and fractures. I'm not sure if there is anything I can do? But since we have so much time on it this I would think I just let it continue to roll and hope they tumble out. This is my first year doing this. Do they pick stones that are tougher to tumble on purpose?
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NRG
fully equipped rock polisher
Member since February 2018
Posts: 1,630
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Post by NRG on Feb 18, 2021 10:31:19 GMT -5
I have been tumbling mine for nearly 5 weeks in stage 1. I do notice a lot of pin holes and fractures. I'm not sure if there is anything I can do? Pinholes? Probably not. Fractures? Take a chisel and break the piece along the fracture Yes, see my post above yours.
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Post by Bob on Feb 18, 2021 18:46:44 GMT -5
Well, having run a similar contest I will chime in here for some perspective. If you send high end Agates or bloodstone, or some other common yet high quality material, then everyone will send in near perfect stones for judging. If they send in challenging materials, then some luck of the draw is involved but more importantly the skills really start to shine. They did obsidian but Chuck and Rob and many others polish that in their sleep. So now they send lower grades and it will be easier to tease out a winner. The downside is people whine about the materials as they don't care about the judges dilemma. Thank you for taking the time to post that, which was very educational for me. Taking the chance to speak for more than just myself, some of our whining though is just grouchiness for fun too. Bloodstone, etc. you help me realize that would be pretty boring compared to XYZ each year. I've been tumbling pieces of hematite or psilomelane--at times not entirely sure which--from the CA desert for years, and so far not a single one has come through to my satisfaction. That's an example I guess of good contest material. As someone who lives just a few miles from the famed Boley "agate" fields, my fellow contestants better hope the contest isn't ever for that as it would be so terrible I would probably just save my $30 that year--even though I might have more experience tumbling that crud than anyone.
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bourbon13
off to a rocking start
Member since January 2021
Posts: 10
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Post by bourbon13 on Feb 19, 2021 11:58:36 GMT -5
My post was not so much whining as just observation. I will continue to tumble this but I was just letting the forum know what I found whether that was helpful or not is up to the other members here.
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paintbiscuit
off to a rocking start
Member since January 2021
Posts: 16
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Post by paintbiscuit on Feb 19, 2021 13:23:50 GMT -5
Wooferhound bourbon13 rrod Burris Creek feeds Black Butte Reservoir from the South, so the material is often referred to as Black Butte jasper, especially if harvested near the lake. There is lots of beautiful material there — mostly brecciated, sometimes or ocular. The quality is highly variable, especially the yellow. Some is harder than Hell, some is soft and punky, sometimes within millimeters. Pin-holes and unsealed fractures are common. I’ve only cabbed the material, with very inconsistent results. Great material can be found when hounding, but what people have posted looks like it was hounded with a back-hoe. A couple of the specimens I got are awesome. After this contest is over, I might try to get somebody to ship me some more premium specimens from the area that I can actually keep in my collection.
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NRG
fully equipped rock polisher
Member since February 2018
Posts: 1,630
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Post by NRG on Feb 19, 2021 22:04:50 GMT -5
My post was not so much whining as just observation. I will continue to tumble this but I was just letting the forum know what I found whether that was helpful or not is up to the other members here. I wasn’t referring to you. I was referring to my contest. Sorry for the confusion. Thanks for sharing your knowledge
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lookatthat
Cave Dweller
Whatever there is to be found.
Member since May 2017
Posts: 1,360
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Post by lookatthat on Feb 21, 2021 12:54:57 GMT -5
Thinking I'm going to skip it this year. Our season is so short here, and these tumbles take so long, that I hardly get a chance to do much else, and I've got things i really want to tumble.
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dshanpnw
freely admits to licking rocks
Member since December 2020
Posts: 892
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Post by dshanpnw on Feb 21, 2021 19:44:02 GMT -5
Good luck to everyone. I think the rocks look wonderful.
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Wooferhound
Cave Dweller
Lortone QT66 and 3A
Member since December 2016
Posts: 1,423
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Post by Wooferhound on Feb 22, 2021 9:34:22 GMT -5
It has been too cold to do a cleanout. This last tumble has been rolling for 12 days now, I'll do the cleanout this afternoon when it warms up a little bit. Will be finished with Stage 1 and will push it all into 220 grit today. My stuff has plenty of cracks in it.
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thebeef
having dreams about rocks
Member since September 2020
Posts: 62
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Post by thebeef on Feb 24, 2021 13:54:14 GMT -5
After a bit of rough, some of these rocks are actually exciting. I think I've developed a plan for them...but I'll say more about it after the competition.
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Wooferhound
Cave Dweller
Lortone QT66 and 3A
Member since December 2016
Posts: 1,423
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Post by Wooferhound on Feb 24, 2021 15:43:16 GMT -5
Oh yes . . . I am keeping my secrets close too.
in fact ... I have said too much already.
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