Montana agates & pet wood

saxplayer

I love tumbling Montana agates, but I wish I could get larger tumbles. Larger pieces usually break up or fracture during the tumbling process. Most of the fractures were already there, but tumbling makes them more visible. When bad fractures show up during tumbling, I either split the tumbles with a chisel or try to grind out the fractures. This works, and after at least a few months, I can get impossibly shiny and fracture free MT agate tumbles. But most are quite small by the end of the process.

Although I have a few handfuls of larger MT agate tumbles like this:




I have many more small ones like this:



Please ignore the fingerprints, dust, and cat hair.

Have you had much luck with larger MT agate tumbles?