sheltie
freely admits to licking rocks
Member since January 2012
Posts: 982
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Post by sheltie on May 6, 2012 9:21:47 GMT -5
We've been tumbling agates and jaspers for our own benefit for several years and have always been very pleased with the results. We use a 6 lb Lortone rotary and a 12 lb (two barrel) Lortone rotary to do the work.
By far, most of the rocks we have tumbled have been gathered on various trips to the Oregon coast. Almost without exception they have been finished to a high gloss. We just put them in glass containers and they shine like marbles. I would imagine this is at least partially because the ocean and sand did much of our work for us.
On the other hand, agates and jaspers we picked up at the Woodward Ranch, for the most part, HAVEN'T resulted in a polished state when finished. Much of the exterior is still in a "natural" state and the rocks were pretty pitted to begin with so the pits are still in their original shape and unshiny.
I understand that there are rocks that simply don't result in a high gloss shine after being tumbled, but there is no doubt that these are agates and jaspers, so I don't understand why the final result isn't what we expected.
Any ideas what could cause this or is it just the natural way of some rocks, even agates and jaspers, not to take a shine?
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Steve
has rocks in the head
Member since June 2005
Posts: 506
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Post by Steve on May 6, 2012 9:44:45 GMT -5
I live in Oregon and most of my tumbling has been Oregon beach rocks. I've never seen or tumbled Woodward Ranch material -- still I strongly suspect that the issue is technique and time. You can get a decent polish with OR beach rocks in 3 weeks and a great polish with 6 weeks. I'm sure that the Woodward Ranch material would take multiple course runs, so you're looking at 3 or 4 months min with a much larger loss of mass.
As to your question - yes some agates and jaspers will not polish well. Some are just too pitted and some are made up of a mixture of hardnesses (is that a word?)
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Post by jakesrocks on May 6, 2012 10:22:08 GMT -5
Woodward Ranch material is hard enough to take a high shine. As for the remaining rind, that is also an agate material. You may have to tumble the Woodward material several times to remove all of the rind. I'd suggest putting them back in first stage several times, along with your Oregon beach material.
As for the pits, don't expect to get rid of them unless you grind them out first. The pits may also be part of your problem with getting a good shine on Woodward material. Are you making sure that you are cleaning the pits out real good between stages ? I'd suggest running a soap and water stage between each grinding stage, followed by several rinses in clean water.
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