waterboysh
spending too much on rocks
Member since April 2021
Posts: 369
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Post by waterboysh on Apr 29, 2021 14:57:53 GMT -5
Most of my rock collection I had as a kid is gone, but apparently my mom kept a small portion of them. She gave me some when I visited last and I decided to try tumbling some of them. I have no idea what they are, but I threw them in my tumbler to see what will happen. 1. I only put 1 of these in the tumbler. I'll see what it looks like on Saturday. 2. Front and back 3. The texture of this one is weird. It almost feels kinda waxy in areas, but is hard and not soft. 4. 5.
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Post by adam on Apr 29, 2021 16:17:01 GMT -5
The last one looks like it has quartz in it. It's geode-like.
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Post by jasoninsd on Apr 29, 2021 16:29:17 GMT -5
I'm curious to see how that first rock comes out of the tumbler. I'd love to see the results from that one! Isn't it great when moms keep some of our crap around for what seems like forever? LOL - Of course, in this case, the rocks weren't crap...unless they were coprolite!
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Post by rockpickerforever on Apr 29, 2021 17:19:44 GMT -5
I'm curious to see how that first rock comes out of the tumbler. I'd love to see the results from that one! Isn't it great when moms keep some of our crap around for what seems like forever? LOL - Of course, in this case, the rocks weren't crap...unless they were coprolite! It's sad how too many moms throw away their son's baseball card collections, but not usually right away. They hang onto them for too many years until they are worth a lot of money, THEN they throw them away, lol. Sons, if you have stuff like that still at your parents' house, go get it and bring it home now. If you don't, you have no one to blame but yourself!
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Post by jasoninsd on Apr 29, 2021 18:37:13 GMT -5
I'm curious to see how that first rock comes out of the tumbler. I'd love to see the results from that one! Isn't it great when moms keep some of our crap around for what seems like forever? LOL - Of course, in this case, the rocks weren't crap...unless they were coprolite! It's sad how too many moms throw away their son's baseball card collections, but not usually right away. They hang onto them for too many years until they are worth a lot of money, THEN they throw them away, lol. Sons, if you have stuff like that still at your parents' house, go get it and bring it home now. If you don't, you have no one to blame but yourself! Anything of any "monetary" value has been out of mom's house for decades. However, in a very expensive china hutch amongst her extremely pricey crystal, is an extremenly awkward looking piece of "pottery" that I made in 7th grade art class. To the "untrained" eye, it is very much out of place...but to my mother's eye, it would appear to be just as valued as say a Waterford vase. LOL
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Post by hummingbirdstones on Apr 29, 2021 19:04:53 GMT -5
In the first picture, the rocks look like granite to me. I'll be looking for the pic of the one that's tumbled.
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waterboysh
spending too much on rocks
Member since April 2021
Posts: 369
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Post by waterboysh on Apr 29, 2021 19:32:09 GMT -5
They will all be finishing their second week in course on Saturday. The first rock looked really good after 1 week but still had some rough areas. It might be ready for medium. I'll find out soon and get updated pictures.
I thought it might be granite, but when I googled images of granite, I couldn't find anything that matched.
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AQuartzLow
starting to shine!
Member since November 2020
Posts: 44
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Post by AQuartzLow on Apr 29, 2021 19:46:57 GMT -5
They will all be finishing their second week in course on Saturday. The first rock looked really good after 1 week but still had some rough areas. It might be ready for medium. I'll find out soon and get updated pictures. I thought it might be granite, but when I googled images of granite, I couldn't find anything that matched. Diorite, maybe? I have some that looks the same and, after my Geology PhD from Quarantine Google University, diorite is what I’m assuming it is. 🤓
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Post by rockpickerforever on Apr 29, 2021 20:12:23 GMT -5
Side by side photos, and more info at link My personal take is I don't think either are really suitable for tumbling. They both have a coarse texture (as a general rule, fine-grained rocks will take the better polish). Also, the differences in hardness between the constituent minerals can allow undercutting in a tumbler.
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Post by jasoninsd on Apr 29, 2021 20:33:19 GMT -5
They will all be finishing their second week in course on Saturday. The first rock looked really good after 1 week but still had some rough areas. It might be ready for medium. I'll find out soon and get updated pictures. I thought it might be granite, but when I googled images of granite, I couldn't find anything that matched. Diorite, maybe? I have some that looks the same and, after my Geology PhD from Quarantine Google University, diorite is what I’m assuming it is. 🤓 The bold part made me laugh right out loud! That was awesome!
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quartzilla
Cave Dweller
Member since April 2020
Posts: 1,215
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Post by quartzilla on Apr 29, 2021 22:11:51 GMT -5
That’s pretty cool. Bet it feels great to have them back. I still remember vividly my first rock, a geode half with bubbly druzy white quartz and agate banding around the edges. Lol I miss that rock, not sure what happened to it.
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waterboysh
spending too much on rocks
Member since April 2021
Posts: 369
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Post by waterboysh on Apr 29, 2021 23:33:04 GMT -5
After reading the difference between granite and diorite, I think it may be granite. It seems that the main difference between the two is "Is the white part feldspar or quartz?" and after looking at what I have, I believe it's quartz. Here are a few close up pictures with my new clip-on phone macro lens (not as good quality as I would like; not sure if it's just me not being used to it or if it's the lens) of one of the rough ones. I decided to go fish the one out of my barrel that I had thrown in instead of waiting until Saturday. It's way smoother than the rough rock, but when rubbing your finger over it, you can tell it's not smooth smooth if you know what I mean. Here is a picture of it wet and dry. So thoughts on continuing to tumble it further? Can you explain what exactly undercutting is? I've seen that term mentioned before, but not sure what it means. What's the worst that can happen? If it's not 100% smooth, can it ruin the polish of the other rocks in the batch?
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Post by rockpickerforever on Apr 30, 2021 1:38:24 GMT -5
After reading the difference between granite and diorite, I think it may be granite. It seems that the main difference between the two is "Is the white part feldspar or quartz?" and after looking at what I have, I believe it's quartz. Here are a few close up pictures with my new clip-on phone macro lens (not as good quality as I would like; not sure if it's just me not being used to it or if it's the lens) of one of the rough ones. I decided to go fish the one out of my barrel that I had thrown in instead of waiting until Saturday. It's way smoother than the rough rock, but when rubbing your finger over it, you can tell it's not smooth smooth if you know what I mean. Here is a picture of it wet and dry. So thoughts on continuing to tumble it further? Can you explain what exactly undercutting is? I've seen that term mentioned before, but not sure what it means. What's the worst that can happen? If it's not 100% smooth, can it ruin the polish of the other rocks in the batch? It has rounded some, but you can still see the coarseness. It is not going to take a shiny polish, like a microcrystalline quartz would. Me personally, I would not continue with it, but that's just me. If the rock is being rounded, but maybe not super polished, if it is good enough for your purposes, then you're golden. What do you plan to do with your tumbles? Some folks are okay with just smoothing and rounding their finds, others want nothing less than perfection, a high gloss shine. Where do you fall in the spectrum? Undercutting happens when the rock's component minerals are of different hardnesses. The softer parts will be ground away more quickly than the harder parts. It is always best to tumble batches of rocks that are of similar hardness.Yes, worst case, it can prevent other rocks in the batch from taking their best polish. But hey, this isn't rocket science. You will learn by trial and error, find out what works and what doesn't. What's important is having fun, and learning as you go along.
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fuss
spending too much on rocks
Member since October 2018
Posts: 250
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Post by fuss on Apr 30, 2021 8:08:07 GMT -5
The first group of rocks look to be Schist, 2 quartzite or just quartz, 3 Chert, 4 limestone and 5 Chert.
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AQuartzLow
starting to shine!
Member since November 2020
Posts: 44
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Post by AQuartzLow on Apr 30, 2021 13:47:54 GMT -5
Side by side photos, and more info at link My personal take is I don't think either are really suitable for tumbling. They both have a coarse texture (as a general rule, fine-grained rocks will take the better polish). Also, the differences in hardness between the constituent minerals can allow undercutting in a tumbler. Thanks for that link! A really great resource for learning about geology and identifying rocks and minerals is CVshorey’s Earth Explorations YouTube playlist. (He was one of my “professors” for my Quarantine Google University PhD, jasoninsd 😂) Episode 28- Intrusive Igneous Rocks- shows how to identify diorite (and is the reason I thought your (and my) rocks were diorite, waterboysh ). Episode 29 goes into granite and diorite, as well. Episode 15- Feldspars and Quartz- is very helpful in identifying/differentiating those 2 minerals since they are both so common and can look a lot alike.
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ericabelle
spending too much on rocks
Instagram acct: @erica_shoots_everything
Member since April 2021
Posts: 482
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Post by ericabelle on May 8, 2021 13:18:38 GMT -5
Wonderful rock collection, waterboysh - I used to have a dog that would pick up smooth rocks and bring them to me. I still have his rock collection! Good dog mom....good dog mom. LOL
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