richardh
spending too much on rocks
Member since June 2016
Posts: 391
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Post by richardh on Dec 27, 2017 21:24:55 GMT -5
Those are some really nice photos. I love crazy lace too, such neat material!!
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richardh
spending too much on rocks
Member since June 2016
Posts: 391
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Post by richardh on Sept 12, 2017 22:36:44 GMT -5
Ok my mind is blown! I don't know how you are so good at picking winners. I LOVE all that color.
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richardh
spending too much on rocks
Member since June 2016
Posts: 391
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Post by richardh on Sept 12, 2017 22:32:42 GMT -5
Those are incredible! I've been to some of those gravel beds a few times and picked up like a 5 gallon bucket full of pet wood (between all the visits) and never seem to find anything close to the color and textures of these beauties. I think I need a new set of eyes LOL! A+++
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richardh
spending too much on rocks
Member since June 2016
Posts: 391
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Post by richardh on Sept 12, 2017 22:28:15 GMT -5
Those all look fantastic. I'm so impressed with the nice finish you are able to get with the plumes. So far everything I have tried to tumble with similar looking features has not finished well.
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richardh
spending too much on rocks
Member since June 2016
Posts: 391
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Post by richardh on Sept 12, 2017 22:17:35 GMT -5
Wow those are SWEET!
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richardh
spending too much on rocks
Member since June 2016
Posts: 391
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Post by richardh on Sept 12, 2017 19:24:16 GMT -5
Those look awesome, much better than the Ocean Jasper I got from there. Mine had very few pieces with orbs and no larger pieces like you show here. I guess I'll have to give them another try, you have inspired me!
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richardh
spending too much on rocks
Member since June 2016
Posts: 391
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Post by richardh on Sept 4, 2017 20:19:51 GMT -5
Hey its a hobby. I don't know of any hobby that's supposed to make money instead of costing money. I tell my significant other that while I play with rocks, at least I don't spend the money on buying cocaine or something. She always enjoys that one, haha. Selling serves multiple purposes for me #1 revenue to reinvest into rocks #2 getting satisfaction that other people enjoy my finished product #3 getting rid of stuff so I can make more. At any given time I'll have over 100 wire wraps, hundreds of cabs and hundreds of pounds of finished tumbles. Family and friends will only take so much. I am a next rock junkie. After my stuff is done I don't go back and look at them over and over. I immediately start with whats next. Chuck Sounds like me but on a larger scale. My plastic bin of polished rocks is exactly why I'm getting so much grief. I take them out of the tumbler, wash them up and dry them. Look at each one for a little while then dump them into the bin. I never go back and look at them again because I'm so fixated on the future batches. Hey, it's fun to me.
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richardh
spending too much on rocks
Member since June 2016
Posts: 391
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Post by richardh on Sept 3, 2017 19:31:26 GMT -5
Beautiful tumbles as always. Is it profitable at $10/lb or is it mainly for fun? Its more profitable then leaving them sitting in plastic bins in my basement, lol. My show bin holds about 50 pounds and folks get to fill velvet bags with them so it is pretty entertaining listening to all the comments as they find their treasures. This is just a hobby but it is an expensive hobby. Selling some jewelry and tumbles keeps me from dipping into the family budget. Chuck Thanks for the explanation. I'm getting some grief at home about my limited activity and have generated a bin of polished rocks. Almost all of it is stuff that I self collected and isn't very interesting to anyone but me. I've spent money on a couple of tumblers and grit and some rough and now I'm being told that if I want to continue I need to make some money from it. I can't realistically think of a way to do it so my tumbling days may be numbered. I said at least let me use up my 50lb box of coarse grit before I have to quit. It's more than half full so I still have a little time. Anyway sorry for the rambling.
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richardh
spending too much on rocks
Member since June 2016
Posts: 391
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Post by richardh on Sept 3, 2017 14:49:42 GMT -5
Beautiful tumbles as always. Is it profitable at $10/lb or is it mainly for fun?
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richardh
spending too much on rocks
Member since June 2016
Posts: 391
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Post by richardh on Sept 3, 2017 9:22:00 GMT -5
We got a foot of water in our house and flooded car that looks like a total loss. Tons of work to do and so much stuff ruined but I was helping my neighbor yesterday for a little while ripping their carpet out and they got it much worse than we did. None of us have flood insurance so plenty of stress. Playing with the rocks is a nice distraction from the reality of the flooding situation. All said I'm very thankful that we came out of this as well as we did. It stings but we will make it through it.
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richardh
spending too much on rocks
Member since June 2016
Posts: 391
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Post by richardh on Sept 2, 2017 20:01:17 GMT -5
I've been ripping out drywall all day and have a bunch of work to do so I'm taking the lazy way out for now and tossed them into the coarse stage a few minutes ago. I started to try to chisel the big crack but chickened out at the last minute. Darn those cracks, I really liked the first one save for the cracks.
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richardh
spending too much on rocks
Member since June 2016
Posts: 391
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Post by richardh on Sept 2, 2017 7:27:03 GMT -5
Thanks all, will try to rework them and report back.
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richardh
spending too much on rocks
Member since June 2016
Posts: 391
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Post by richardh on Aug 31, 2017 22:24:42 GMT -5
Thanks for the advice, I think that is exactly what I am going to do. The shine is so nice I can hardly bring myself to rough them up again but hopefully the end result will look much better.
My mom's car got flooded and we got six inches of water in our house but everyone is safe so we consider ourselves lucky. Many of our neighbors got a lot more damage than we did.
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richardh
spending too much on rocks
Member since June 2016
Posts: 391
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Post by richardh on Aug 31, 2017 21:41:12 GMT -5
Hi all, long time no see. The whole Photobucket thing really messed me up but now I have some time and am trying to figure out Flickr so if no photos so up it is because I haven't figured it out yet. Anyway, a while back a friend gave me these two Botswana Agates and I threw them into my tumbler with a bunch of other found rocks and after what seemed like forever they have finally finished the polish stage. They are quite shiny, probably the shiniest rocks I have ever produced but the cracks in them sort of spoil the appearance of the rocks. Does anyone here think it might be worth throwing these back in the coarse grind to try to wear down the cracked areas so I can get a better final appearance? What would you do? Untitled by Rich Wray, on Flickr image by Rich Wray, on Flickr image by Rich Wray, on Flickr image by Rich Wray, on Flickr image by Rich Wray, on Flickr Thanks Richard
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richardh
spending too much on rocks
Member since June 2016
Posts: 391
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Post by richardh on Jun 19, 2017 10:49:05 GMT -5
Those are all awesome. What is }5? I really love that one, 6 are also super interesting. The green one that looks like ocean Jasper is also spectacular. I got to quit looking at your posts because they always get me all fired up to buy more rough and I am broke!!! I bought a bag of those bots from Rocktumbler.com a few months ago. Haven't finished any of them yet but from the way they are looking so far I don't think I will get any as nice as what you showed here. I don't know how you do it but you always seem to get the best out of the rough. Thanks, Richard. #5 is Flint Ridge and #6 is a piece of tiger iron on the right, hard to tell where the one on the left came from. The ocean jasper came from one of our cabbers here. I worked out a deal for a box of scraps and end pieces. That's one good way to get a variety of top notch material. They usually have better rough than us tumblers. I also found a supplier on Ebay that puts together a pretty good hodge podge of material. That's where my Flint Ridge material came from. Keep those Bots rolling. Mine went in at the beginning of March and are just finishing up. They are river rounded, but beat up, so they took a while to get to the point you see above. There are still flaws, but I didn't see any value in leaving them in longer. You definitely know how to get the good stuff and the results really show. The bots I got sound very similar to what you got which is encouraging. Many of mine were very beat up and I used a tile saw to even them out some. Even then many have deep cracks but a few of them look like they will come out well eventually.
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richardh
spending too much on rocks
Member since June 2016
Posts: 391
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Post by richardh on Jun 19, 2017 0:10:47 GMT -5
Those are all awesome. What is }5? I really love that one, 6 are also super interesting. The green one that looks like ocean Jasper is also spectacular. I got to quit looking at your posts because they always get me all fired up to buy more rough and I am broke!!!
I bought a bag of those bots from Rocktumbler.com a few months ago. Haven't finished any of them yet but from the way they are looking so far I don't think I will get any as nice as what you showed here. I don't know how you do it but you always seem to get the best out of the rough.
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richardh
spending too much on rocks
Member since June 2016
Posts: 391
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Post by richardh on Jun 5, 2017 14:29:23 GMT -5
Nice looking results and pretty material. Thanks very much for sharing the process information and for commenting on how each material was to work with. Great information!!
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richardh
spending too much on rocks
Member since June 2016
Posts: 391
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Post by richardh on Jun 5, 2017 8:09:50 GMT -5
That Kentucky agate is awesome. I was just on a road trip through Kentucky and stopped by a few rock shops asking about Kentucky agate and no one seemed to know anything about it. They just had a bunch of geodes. You always have the prettiest material. Thanks Richard! I didn't know there were a few rock shops in KY. You must have been around the Mammoth Cave area. Or Western KY around the fluorite museum. Surprised to hear they didn't know of KY agate. Yes we were visiting Mammoth Cave and I guess rock shop might be a little generous. There were a bunch of places with tables full of geodes. Actually from looking at your rough photos I guess that is more or less where the Kentucky agate comes from. If they had some cut ones I might have noticed though it sounds like it is a long shot to get one with color in it. Always more to learn!
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richardh
spending too much on rocks
Member since June 2016
Posts: 391
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Post by richardh on Jun 4, 2017 1:32:20 GMT -5
That Kentucky agate is awesome. I was just on a road trip through Kentucky and stopped by a few rock shops asking about Kentucky agate and no one seemed to know anything about it. They just had a bunch of geodes. You always have the prettiest material.
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richardh
spending too much on rocks
Member since June 2016
Posts: 391
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Post by richardh on May 30, 2017 21:57:34 GMT -5
Beautiful stuff here, thanks for sharing!
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