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Newbie
Sept 15, 2003 10:34:41 GMT -5
Post by SpareTime on Sept 15, 2003 10:34:41 GMT -5
Hi all, The about a week ago we were walking through a small shop and our 2 year old son noticed a beautiful display of polished rocks. I think he could have sttof there for hours just gazing at all the different colors. Well, needless to say within a week after that, we are the proud owners of a new Lortone 33B Rotary Tumbler. My question is, being new to this, how do we know what the hardness is of different rocks? Also, is it possible to tumble Granite? We live in Southeast Michigan, and if we go to down to a local river, mostly what we can find is granite and quartz. Anything else we find I have no clue what it is or how hard any of them are. Any clues to finding out harness and the different types of rocks would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!!
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Newbie
Sept 15, 2003 22:20:55 GMT -5
Post by docone31 on Sept 15, 2003 22:20:55 GMT -5
Ah newbie, the journey begins. Hardness is measured by the Mohs scale. Usually I look up the different stones and guess. After tumbling for a while, several days, I just plain look see. Quartz is I believe mohs 8.5-9, granite is about 7 or 8. This a guess on granite, and I know it polishes very well. Tile saws cut it very easily, and simple grinding wheels shape it. It is georgeous when polished and no two pieces seem to come out the same. On the internet is a wealth of information on individual stones, Thaigem.com has a library and sends newsletters on gems. About.com/geology has major tutorials. Good luck to the two of you, and may you see things never seen before. Doc
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Newbie
Sept 16, 2003 7:19:36 GMT -5
Post by SpareTime on Sept 16, 2003 7:19:36 GMT -5
Docone31 -
Thanks for the info - I'm real anxious to see what the granite will turn out like. It good to hear that i polishes well. That seems to be about 75% of what's around my area. Also, I have been doing alot of research already on the internet and I will be sure to check out the 2 links you mentioned.
I just wish there was a faster way to do the proccess. All the waiting is gonna kill me..... ;D
Thanks Again....
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WilliamC
spending too much on rocks
Member since August 2003
Posts: 416
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Newbie
Sept 16, 2003 12:59:58 GMT -5
Post by WilliamC on Sept 16, 2003 12:59:58 GMT -5
Greetings All, Hello Sparetime and welcome to the group! Children are innately curious about the world around them and I think it's great that you are starting to encourage your son to take an active interest in nature at such a young age. I have a 4-year old and we too are enjoying rock tumbling together, he already has quite a collection of gravel and stones that he picks up and I've promised him the next batch we start to tumbling will be of his stones. Tumbling is great for teaching about patience and delayed gratification As for hardness, Doc is right, except that quartz is the defining element for Mohs hardness of 7. For "true" measurement of hardness you can get a set of tools, see www.dadsrockshop.com/hpicks.html for an example. Of course the easiest way is to use just a piece of quartz as your reference, it should scratch most any other rock or mineral you come across...but if it doesn't then you've got something valuable! A most excellent yet inexpensive book that I strongly recommend is "Gemstones of the World" by Walter Schumann (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0806994614/qid=1063734102/sr=2-1/ref=sr_2_1/002-5580743-6448820), you can pick up a copy from Amazon.com for under $20.00. It has hundreds of color pictures and describes all of the lapidary material you would ever come across in a lifetime of collecting. It doesn't have much general information about non-precious rocks (like granite) or minerals though. But, as Docone mentioned, the internet is an easy reference for any topic you want to learn about. Finally, check out Ebay under "collectables: rocks and minerals" or "jewelery: lapidary material", there are always auctions going on and quite often the material is far less than what you would pay if you were to buy it from a dealer at a rock shop...just make sure you take shipping costs into account. But since you mention you have a 33B that's only a 3 lb barrel so you can get some small quantities even of relatively expensive rough for not too much money. So keep the barrel rolling and the rocks tumbling and have fun! WilliamC
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Newbie
Sept 16, 2003 14:02:11 GMT -5
Post by SpareTime on Sept 16, 2003 14:02:11 GMT -5
WilliamC - Thanks for the tips and suggestions. I'll keep the quartz trick in mind next time I'm out looking for something cool to tumble. Also, you can count on me surfing Ebay alot, I do that as it is, I can always find something that i "neeed". I will also be checking into that book the you suggest as soon as I'm done with this post. This is a great forum, I'm glad I found it. Keep up the good work. Thanks again to all.
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Djinjuice
starting to shine!
Member since March 2003
Posts: 47
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Newbie
Sept 17, 2003 1:54:11 GMT -5
Post by Djinjuice on Sept 17, 2003 1:54:11 GMT -5
I picked up Walter Schumann's Handbook of Rocks, Gems, and Minerals at overstock.com for 13.00. As a matter of fact, that is where I got most of my rockhounding/tumbling books, good price, total shipping was 2.98. The Handbook has a Mohs scale, a streak scale (tells you what the rock probably is based on the color of the streak left on raw ceramic tile), pictures of instruments to test hardness, and a couple hundred pictures of rocks in raw form, and some faceted stones. I really like this book, it has alot of info that is easy to understand, and lots of other stuff to help you ID what ever you find. Happy Tumbling !
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Newbie
Dec 3, 2003 17:58:54 GMT -5
Post by Noosh9057 on Dec 3, 2003 17:58:54 GMT -5
Very good inf. Thanks a lot, I am just lerning about the hardness of rocks.
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