milfordman
starting to shine!
Member since August 2004
Posts: 32
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Post by milfordman on Aug 17, 2004 17:52:59 GMT -5
Hi All,
Has anyone successfully tumbled and polished this stuff? Does one use the typical recipe, with more time in 60/90?
Thanks,
Scott
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Post by krazydiamond on Aug 17, 2004 18:55:04 GMT -5
there indeed was a thread in here where someone (don't remember now, sorry) persevered with emeralds for ....a very, very long time.
show us yer rough, arrr! KD
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Post by cookie3rocks on Aug 17, 2004 19:30:29 GMT -5
I've tried corundum, but what usually happens is the stone just shrinks and won't take a polish. Recently had a good star ruby cabbed for a ring and it came out great. But in my attemps to tumble it I only suceeded in losing a lot of volume. Emeralds are softer, and I've brought one of about twenty to a good polish. It was big and I kept backing it up through about 3 cycles before it was ready for polish. It's dark, but very shiney. I think it was puppies that got the big batch finished. There is a thread in Photos.
cookie
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Post by erin on Aug 17, 2004 19:51:28 GMT -5
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Post by docone31 on Aug 17, 2004 23:10:29 GMT -5
I facet, so I tumble emeralds, saphires, rubys to find out which stones to facet. I have tumbled these to take a polish and some have come out great. It takes longer than other stones, and the corundum will chew away at the beryl. There is a long thread in this forum that should show the efforts, difficulties, and triumphs. It is early in the forum.
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Post by stoner on Aug 18, 2004 1:41:00 GMT -5
Hi Scott. There have been many discussions here on this subject and here is my take on it. The Emeralds will polish nicely-Puppie did any excellent job on a full batch recently(pics are in the photo sect.) Don used one of her stones and faceted it with excellent results(also in the photos) Now, as far as the rubies/saphs go, GOOD LUCK. It's my opinion that the rubies sold are indeed rubies, but are not gemstone quality. They are corundum quality; that is, they are used to make grinding wheels. I bought a pound and tumbled them for a long time and never did get any that could be used for anything other than grit. Let us know how you do with your batch-ya never know.
Ed
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Post by puppie96 on Aug 18, 2004 5:36:14 GMT -5
bowwowowowowowow we have finally come back to my favorite subject!
1. Emeralds are great, they will polish beautifully. The challenge is to figure how far down to take them. They will fool you. They will look like their surfaces are dull gray that will never shine, but the dull gray wears away to something shiny underneath. I've got some beautiful stuff. I was brave and put it back over and over, gradually wearing off a lot of the black stuff.
2. Corundum. I've got a ton of this, bought from a variety of sources. I can now truthfully say that I have gotten some stones to shine (mostly the very small ones.) I have been working at this continuously for 8-9 months. Maybe I haven't tried everything, but nobody has suggested anything that I haven't tried. I am going to post some pictures in the near future, but I haven't figured out yet how to get good photos of these. One thing I picked up from posters here (Docone, maybe you?) was that using the corundum as "dunnage rock" continuously was effective in grinding other rocks and also wore away at the corundum. This was as effective as anything I've found out anywhere. Throwing them in with agate-type stuff changes them a lot.
3. Tumbling the ems and the corundum together is okay, up to a point. It will help to get the matrix off of the ems. However, beyond that, be careful because the corundum will eat up the ems in a New York minute.
Hope this is helpful.
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llanago
fully equipped rock polisher
Member since January 2004
Posts: 1,714
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Post by llanago on Aug 18, 2004 9:06:26 GMT -5
Now that I have more than one tumbler, I guess I need to dig out the emeralds and start working on them again. If I can find them in this mess of a rock closet I have! LOL!
Doc, I have a ruby I bought at the rock and mineral show. When ya'll get settled again, I might have to send it to you to facet and make me a ring with. I don't know if it's a good stone for doing something like that, but I think its pretty. Might as well try to do something with it rather than just having it sit in a ziploc bag in the closet.
llana
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Post by Milfordman on Aug 18, 2004 10:12:04 GMT -5
Thanks for your info all.
Puppie, which grit do you use. I have read, but cannot find about using Boron Oxide on these suckers. I will use it for filler in my Moh's 7 60/90 barrel.
Thanks,
Scott
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Post by docone31 on Aug 18, 2004 10:19:21 GMT -5
LLana, I would be glad to facet for you when I am set up. I am going off line today to relocate, and I will definately let the forum where we are, and when I am on line. Look at the free faceting sites to find a pattern that might fit your stone.
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Post by puppie96 on Aug 19, 2004 0:36:59 GMT -5
Milf, when I throw them in with other rock it's the standard 60/90. I've put them through runs with just about everything going and they don't seem to hurt anything. You are talking about the boron polish, I believe? You probably read Mama's sheet on polishing corundum. She suggests a particular polish, it's been a while, but boron is possible, and I looked for it everywhere to no avail -- I found an industrial manufacturer that sold it by the truckload or whatever, that was about. I have done other experiments which I'll elaborate on when I've got more time, don't be concerned about it because I probably wouldn't recommend it anyhow.
Good luck!
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Post by creativeminded on Aug 20, 2004 12:19:28 GMT -5
Nope haven't tried those yet. Tami
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Post by cookie3rocks on Aug 20, 2004 18:25:27 GMT -5
I did a load of blue lace agate with some corundum and I don't know for sure it was the corundum's fault, but the agate was badly cracked. Broke my heart, it was so pretty. So I'm working on getting a full load of corudum and doing it by it's self. Hopefully, after going to a sapphire mine on vacation in a couple of weeks, I'll have enough.
cookie
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Post by puppie96 on Aug 21, 2004 4:32:17 GMT -5
Cookie, wow, where's the sapphire mine? What got me really inspired about these was a woman I met at a show in the spring, she had a plastic container full of beautiful polished Montana sapphires she said she and her dad had picked up themselves. She'd figured out a way to get them to polish. I have tried it as my big experiement. Results are at best so-so. I'm going to post photos when I have time to get some etc. I'm just not all that fired up about it.
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Post by cookie3rocks on Aug 21, 2004 19:41:54 GMT -5
Puppies, we're going to Franklin NC, there are several sappbhire mines in that area, some "salt" the buckets to sluice, but it's stuff from thier own mines, and some let you dig for it. We are staying in a bed and breakfast there, in the "Sapphire Room" of course! ;D
cookie
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MichiganRocks
starting to spend too much on rocks
"I wasn't born to follow."
Member since April 2007
Posts: 154
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Post by MichiganRocks on Aug 21, 2004 20:19:14 GMT -5
Wasted a lot of time on Rubies (?) and Emeralds. All the emeralds did was turn to green sand. Nothing in the the rubies could even remotely be considered useful to polish as of yet. Started with 9 pounds of ruby, now down to around 3 pounds. I use them as filler to help grind down other rocks. I agree with Puppie and Doc, got farther using them as filler than with anything else I did.
Boron carbide is a synthetic diamond which would give you a grit that is harder than the ruby. It's very expensive and I'm sure you don't want to buy any! As Doc mentioned earlier, diamond, or material as hard as diamond, could be very hard to remove from the rubber in your barrel and it wouldn't break down over time like carbide will.
Ron
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