Mazanec
spending too much on rocks
Member since March 2004
Posts: 355
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Post by Mazanec on Oct 30, 2010 4:21:43 GMT -5
I read on Wikipedia that the hobby became popular in the 1970s. But was there any rock tumbling hobby at all before that? Any old timers got any recollections?
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Post by rockrookie on Oct 30, 2010 7:03:30 GMT -5
i talked to a fellow at a show . that said the he has been making cabs for over 55 years . i don't know about tumbling , though . --paul
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Post by rockmanken on Oct 30, 2010 7:26:43 GMT -5
I started in 70. I bought out a rock shop contents. In it there were several tumblers. A 12 lb., a 6 lb. Covington that was plastic drum and on a 45 degree angle and several 3lb. ones. These were all used, some very well used. Ken
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drjo
fully equipped rock polisher
Honduran Opal & DIY Nut
Member since May 2008
Posts: 1,581
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Post by drjo on Oct 30, 2010 7:28:51 GMT -5
I don't think rocks were invented till the early 60's.... If you want to know when something became popular there's only one place to go.....the Sears catalog ;D www.wishbookweb.com/1966_Sears_Wishbook/images/1966_SearsChristmas_Page319.jpgI didn't find anything in the 40's to mid 50's and I think I may have the gem making outfit (didn't bother to call them flat laps or all-in-one back then). Anybody got anything earlier? Dr Joe .
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Post by johnjsgems on Oct 30, 2010 7:49:01 GMT -5
My parents started in 1970 I think. I found old rock guides in my dad's things dated in the 50's. The Gy-Roc Vibrahones went back to WWII and were used for metal burnishing. At least that's what I've been told. I'm guessing a lot of rock tumblers started life as metal parts or jewelry finishers.
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Post by jakesrocks on Oct 30, 2010 8:20:37 GMT -5
Ok, you asked for an old timer. My Jr. High School had a rock club, complete with saws and cabbing equipment in the early 50's. The schools metal shop teacher was a rockhound, and was allowed to use an empty shop room to set up all of his equipment there. We went on weekend field trips to known collecting sites, and on certain evenings of the week were allowed to use the equipment with supervision. I still have the first cab I cut in that room. As I recall, all of the equipment was Covington or home built. I don't remember our instructor having any tumbling equipment, and as for guide books, they were maps with markings on them, and notebooks full of notes and hand drawn maps.
Don
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Post by bobby1 on Oct 30, 2010 10:06:08 GMT -5
I got started cabbing in the late 50's when I was in high school. My uncle taught me on a machine that had the split drums for sanding. He didn't have any tumblers then, though. Bob
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Post by jakesrocks on Oct 30, 2010 10:29:14 GMT -5
Hey Bob, I remember the split cam lock drums well. I gave away a poly arbor with hoods, pans and a pair of 8" split drums a couple years ago. I hated those split drums. While you were sanding, all you could feel was bump, bump, bump, every time the split hit the cab. Still have the open faced polishing wheel though. The type where the leather was held on with a big spring. I want to use it again, but I'm having trouble finding a 10" square of elk hide to fit the 8" wheel. Don
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Post by Dicky the Rockhunter on Oct 30, 2010 14:47:49 GMT -5
as a kid in the mid 40s my dad would take me to places like Arkansas and the Smokey's and to the glacial moraines where I would collect and when we got home dad made a chain clamp and wrapped the rocks and split them to see what was inside . fun , sorry I do not have any of that material left. Was fun!
DIcky :cheesy:
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Gem'n I
freely admits to licking rocks
Member since March 2008
Posts: 980
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Post by Gem'n I on Oct 30, 2010 17:29:14 GMT -5
I started back in the 60's with a quart jar of opal I bought from a fellow worker who had an uncle that owned an opal mine in Mexico...traded 1/2 that jar for a B&I all in one unit. Quite a bit before that I was into looking for arrowheads on some of the farms here in Ohio...I still have most of those and I guess that is what really peeked my interest and it never really stopped!!! I really don't think I could have been able to afford getting into the hobby now with the stuff costing what it does now!!!
Larry
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Post by bobby1 on Oct 30, 2010 18:02:45 GMT -5
In Francis Sperisen's book "The Art of Lapidary" published in 1961 he states "in the past decade tumbled gemstones have become very popular" This implies that tumbling was going on in the 50's. He shows photos of a home made tumbler using paint cans in the book. in In John Sinkankas' book "Gem Cutting - A Lapidary's Manual" first published in 1955 he shows some tumbler barrels that look a lot like the Lortone units of today. I guess it wouls be safe to say that tumbling started sometime in the mid 50's. Bob
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Post by Woodyrock on Oct 31, 2010 0:51:13 GMT -5
I remember a big rockshop somewhere on 101 between Oceanside, and San Diego that had hugh tumblers late fifties,early sixties. These tumblers were about four feet in diameter, and six feet long. I was really into metallic mineral specimens then, but that shop did sell grit, and tumblers as well as tumbling tons of rock. They had a big jaw type rock crusher to break up the rock for tumbling. I think they sold tumbling rough then but not sure about that. I know that every town in Southern California had at least one rock shop in the early sixties. Woody
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turnedstone
freely admits to licking rocks
Member since January 2006
Posts: 766
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Post by turnedstone on Oct 31, 2010 1:14:58 GMT -5
Well I just read one of my lapidary Journals from June 1950 from cover to cover and not one mention of tumbling in any add or article. Boy it was sure fun reading some of the adds and articles thanks for starting this thread. I have not had one out in years took an hour of looking to find them. Wish I could post some of the adds they are funny as are some of the articles. I have 19 LJs from 1949 to DEC. 1958 I will look for the others(found only the 4 I have for the 1950 year they came out bimonthly back then)after I read the others I just found. So that Dates it to at least the 50s not beyond. George
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Mazanec
spending too much on rocks
Member since March 2004
Posts: 355
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Post by Mazanec on Oct 31, 2010 7:59:55 GMT -5
That 1966 Sears add had a price about a third of a starter kit of today. I guess our technology today is a bargain. I remember when I started reading science fiction in the 70s I could fill a small briefcase with paperbacks for a $20. Now you get two books and change.
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bgast1
fully equipped rock polisher
Member since July 2010
Posts: 1,076
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Post by bgast1 on Oct 31, 2010 12:56:03 GMT -5
I just started, but I have John Sinkankas book. Is everybody here over 50? Geez, I get idea from reading some of these postings that some of you got to be pushin 100. ;D
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Sabre52
Cave Dweller
Me and my gal, Rosie
Member since August 2005
Posts: 20,456
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Post by Sabre52 on Oct 31, 2010 13:03:12 GMT -5
Yeah, I started back in the late 1950's but the folks who started me out, including my pop started just after WWII. Wish I still had it but I remember an old lapidary magazine I used to have as a kid that was in a sort of 5 x 8" format and the ads for rough rock in the back would blow our minds today as stuff was incredibly cheap. But then, not so much so if you took into account wages and inflation. My pop's first house cost about $6000 in 1953. My mom sold it a few years ago at about 450K. Adjusted for inflation, the fine agate that used to be 50 cents per pound would be $37.50 per pound now so actually prices are maybe a bit cheaper today than then. The only difference is, man, I remember the rocks were really abundant back in the 50's. You could easily dig T-Eggs in the Berkeley Hills and the Mojave desert was literally paved with good agate, desert roses etc with no heavy walking or digging actually required. Man, those were the days. We didn't have a tumbler in say, 1958 but I think they were around. We just had a little horizontal 6" saw and cabbing combo unit. Probably from sears as that's where my pop bought everything *L*..Mel
PS: Just checked my library and I actually have a copy of California Gem Trails by H.C Dake 1952 that is full of old maps and info. Even has a bit on the rediscovery of Stone canyon Jasper by an old mentor or mine, Buster Sledge. So, since Buster was real old at the time and one of the original Berkeley T-Egg guys too with a well established rock shop, the hobby was quite popular even by 52. An article in the back of this volume discusses the William Pitts collection. He apparently dated back to about 1900 in the hobby and retired to full time lapidary stuff in 1925 when he built a collection of about every known rock which might lend itself to lapidary use. Pitts is perhaps most famous in lapidary circles for discovering the Morgan Hill Poppy Jasper deposits in 1907 from which he collected and distributed many fine examples including those in the Smithsonian.
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bgast1
fully equipped rock polisher
Member since July 2010
Posts: 1,076
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Post by bgast1 on Oct 31, 2010 13:18:06 GMT -5
The people that inspired me when I was a kid, but didn't really know what it was all about were probably in their '60's so the hobby has to go back quite a way.
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Post by Woodyrock on Nov 1, 2010 1:01:56 GMT -5
Mel: That old 5 X 8 Lapidary magazine was probably the Lapidary Journal.........or Gem & Minerals. I think it was close to 1960 when Lap Journal changed to the larger size. All of 1955 are the small size. I have more this vintage, but being also vintage myself, I do not know where they are. Anyhow, there is a nice article on how to build a tumbler in the February issue, and several ads for commercial units. Woody
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Post by jakesrocks on Nov 1, 2010 8:59:34 GMT -5
Hey Mel, I just did some digging, and came up with a copy of Gem Trails in California by Mickey Broman. It's the 1976 revised edition. I remember buying it in the 70's to replace an earlier copy that had disintegrated from old age and use. Somewhere in all of my junk I have an old copy of Desert Gem trails. Not sure which edition that one is, but it's one of the first. Don
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Post by Hard Rock Cafe on Nov 1, 2010 12:02:29 GMT -5
Back to the OP, I was in junior high in the '70s (no, I'm not over 50, yet), and rock tumblers had become very popular. There was a little one, probably 1.5 lbs, sold by either Sears or Montgomery Ward, that a lot of people had. In fact, that's when I got interested in lapidary. I really wanted one of those tumblers, but never got one. I got my first tumbler 4 or 5 years ago (a Rolling Stones). And my wife regrets the day she gave it to me...
Chuck
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