einholt
noticing nice landscape pebbles
Member since May 2019
Posts: 95
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Post by einholt on Jul 25, 2019 10:11:29 GMT -5
So, extended family saw my rock tumbler and have started dropping random rocks on me in the hopes that I'll eventually do something with them. I was recently given some larger pieces of wonderstone. Before I attempt to cut or break them, does anyone have experience with it? Does it fracture well? Is it better to cut it? Is this something to avoid putting in the tumbler? Most of these pieces are about 4 to 6 inches across and 3 to 4 wide.
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Post by orrum on Jul 26, 2019 6:31:35 GMT -5
Heat treat it to enhance the color and help it get shiny. Look it up on how to by Google It's easy.
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einholt
noticing nice landscape pebbles
Member since May 2019
Posts: 95
|
Post by einholt on Jul 26, 2019 11:17:57 GMT -5
Checked into it. 625 degrees? That's doable. And some of the knapped arrowheads look amazing. I haven't knapped in nearly 10 years. Pretty sure I have my old kit in the basement somewhere. I'll have to break it out.
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Post by orrum on Jul 27, 2019 6:01:47 GMT -5
You can take ryolite as hot as you can get. It's already volcanic. My turkey roaster has a runaway thermal tate so with insulation under and on top of the lid I can get 600 F.
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einholt
noticing nice landscape pebbles
Member since May 2019
Posts: 95
|
Post by einholt on Jul 27, 2019 11:29:55 GMT -5
I figure I'll load up my old charcoal grill and bake it that way, it should cool off slow enough. Or I could finally build that adobe oven I always wanted.
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Post by arghvark on Jul 28, 2019 11:00:15 GMT -5
If it's "cellular" wonderstone it does tend to break more easily along cell boundaries, but it's often soft enough to break unpredictably. Sawing will be much more predictable, but of course yields less "organic" shapes.
It does tumble well but can be challenging to get a high shine. I'm also going to set something up to heat treat. Sounds like fun, and results look awesome.
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