Velvet Obsidian Fully Polished

[lapidarycentral]

Finally got a decent amount of our velvet obsidian completely finished.  Phew, with such a shine this stuff can be pretty difficult to photograph in our limited sunshine!  

One thing is certain though, it sure did turn out gorgeous!  We think you'll enjoy it as much as we do.  It took a while to work out some quirks in our polishing stages with the obsidian, but I think we finally nailed it and have good quality results.  We've brought these all the way up to 50,000 grit!  

[pebblesky]

These are beautiful!

[hummingbirdstones2]

Oh yeah, you've got it. That's really nice looking material, too. One of our favorites, for sure.

If there's anyone here who's never cut it I would rocommend giving it a go.

[vance71975]

that is awesome I gotta get me some of that!

[hummingbirdstones]

Beautiful job on those stones!

[hypodactylus]

Rotary or Vibe?

[jasoninsd]

I've tumbled and cabbed Velvet Obsidian from Lapidary Central...and I will say it's pretty amazing rough.

Y'all did a fantastic job on the tumble! Congrats!

[electrocutus]

Wow, these are amazing. The colours and shine are so beautiful!

I just ordered some to try... could not resist :-)

[rocknewb101]

Oh my goodness those look like galaxies! How very stunning. Thanks so much for sharing!!

[lapidarycentral]

Thank you guys, we appreciate the good words!

hypodactylus One week Rotary, grinding wheels to get any remaining defects out, then proceeding to the lot-o vibratory tumbler. We tried our diamond pacific minisonics on these, but even at the lowest settings we could not get near the results we got with a lot-o, and we kept getting a bruised/glazy end result in the minisonics.

[electrocutus]

Dec 1, 2022 13:52:29 GMT -5 lapidarycentral said:

Thank you guys, we appreciate the good words!

hypodactylus One week Rotary, grinding wheels to get any remaining defects out, then proceeding to the lot-o vibratory tumbler. We tried our diamond pacific minisonics on these, but even at the lowest settings we could not get near the results we got with a lot-o, and we kept getting a bruised/glazy end result in the minisonics.

I am in the process of tumbling my frst batch ever of velvet obsidian, or any obsidian really. Considering its relative softness, do you think it's possible to get a good shine with a rotary tumbler only? I've finshed a 60/90 stage and a 280 stage and I am happy with the shapes. I'm about to start a 500 stage.

I only have a rotary tumbler, I don't know if I should try a dry tumble to shine them at the end, or something else.



Thanks.

[jasoninsd]

Mar 7, 2023 17:24:21 GMT -5 electrocutus said:

Dec 1, 2022 13:52:29 GMT -5 lapidarycentral said:

Thank you guys, we appreciate the good words!

hypodactylus One week Rotary, grinding wheels to get any remaining defects out, then proceeding to the lot-o vibratory tumbler. We tried our diamond pacific minisonics on these, but even at the lowest settings we could not get near the results we got with a lot-o, and we kept getting a bruised/glazy end result in the minisonics.

I am in the process of tumbling my frst batch ever of velvet obsidian, or any obsidian really. Considering its relative softness, do you think it's possible to get a good shine with a rotary tumbler only? I've finshed a 60/90 stage and a 280 stage and I am happy with the shapes. I'm about to start a 500 stage.

I only have a rotary tumbler, I don't know if I should try a dry tumble to shine them at the end, or something else.



Thanks.

Lots of people have done them rotary only. You'll definitely want lots of cushioning to keep them from banging into each other. 

[electrocutus]

Mar 7, 2023 17:53:25 GMT -5 jasoninsd said:

Mar 7, 2023 17:24:21 GMT -5 electrocutus said:

I am in the process of tumbling my frst batch ever of velvet obsidian, or any obsidian really. Considering its relative softness, do you think it's possible to get a good shine with a rotary tumbler only? I've finshed a 60/90 stage and a 280 stage and I am happy with the shapes. I'm about to start a 500 stage.

I only have a rotary tumbler, I don't know if I should try a dry tumble to shine them at the end, or something else.



Thanks.

Lots of people have done them rotary only. You'll definitely want lots of cushioning to keep them from banging into each other. 

Thanks jasoninsd.
I'm using ceramic media in my 500 stage, but I think I'll use platic pellets in the follow-up steps to provide more cushioning.

[jasoninsd]

Mar 8, 2023 10:40:34 GMT -5 electrocutus said:

Mar 7, 2023 17:53:25 GMT -5 jasoninsd said:

Lots of people have done them rotary only. You'll definitely want lots of cushioning to keep them from banging into each other. 

Thanks jasoninsd.
I'm using ceramic media in my 500 stage, but I think I'll use platic pellets in the follow-up steps to provide more cushioning.

I haven't finished mine in a rotary...only the vibe. For what it's worth, I've always used ceramic with no issues.

[lapidarycentral]

As Jason said, tons of people swear by the rotary. I tried it once and got terrible results, but I get good results with finishing on the vibratory tumbler. I more than likely just wasn't using enough cushioning.

[kate_foundlings]

Wow these are gorgeous!! Love velvet obsidian, looks like little tiny galaxies all stuffed into a stone. 

[Mel]

Mar 8, 2023 10:40:34 GMT -5 electrocutus said:

Mar 7, 2023 17:53:25 GMT -5 jasoninsd said:

Lots of people have done them rotary only. You'll definitely want lots of cushioning to keep them from banging into each other. 

Thanks jasoninsd .
I'm using ceramic media in my 500 stage, but I think I'll use platic pellets in the follow-up steps to provide more cushioning.

I would just get rid of the plastic altogether and use ceramic only, but that's me.  Definitely need the cushioning.  I've done a lot of obsidian in the rotary, including a beautiful kiwi sized piece of rainbow.....which Mr. Gritty then accidentally sold for $1 at a craft fair.  It was a very sad day.

[gemfreak95]

Mar 7, 2023 17:24:21 GMT -5 electrocutus said:

I am in the process of tumbling my frst batch ever of velvet obsidian, or any obsidian really. Considering its relative softness, do you think it's possible to get a good shine with a rotary tumbler only? I've finshed a 60/90 stage and a 280 stage and I am happy with the shapes. I'm about to start a 500 stage.

I only have a rotary tumbler, I don't know if I should try a dry tumble to shine them at the end, or something else.



Thanks.

I used Steve Hart's (author of the book "Modern Rock Tumbling") method to polish my last batch of obsidian: 2 weeks continuous tumble in cerium oxide, followed by 2 weeks continuous in tin oxide.  It takes forever and tin oxide is crazy expensive, but it's definitely worth it because they came out with almost a mirror finish.

[electrocutus]

I was able to get a few with a nice shine on the main surfaces, but most of the edges/corners are dull. Obviously, one or more of the stages likely did not have enough cushioning. Since I didn't let the stones dry between stages, I don't know which stage was the main culprit. The dull edges are pretty big so it's probably not the polish stage.
What do you all think? How Do I need to go back to the 500 stage, or even 280? I use Silicon Carbide in all stages except polish.

[Mel]

I don't know it's anything you're doing wrong. I've noticed that some obsidian just seems to get that weird peely look on the edge and can be tricky to grind it out. I'd probably just start over at 1 with lots of ceramic and frequent checking on it (separate out whatever's smooth enough as it gets to that point). It might take you 2-3 runs at stage 1 to get them there, but don't give up. It'll be worth it. 

I've been seeing this a lot with my latest bunch, whereas other batches from the same stock come through easily in 3-4 weeks. So frustrating, especially since there's tons of ceramic in the mix, so I'm doing the same process.  Normally I would just redo stage 2 but I did at least 2 weeks of that as well and made zero difference. Go hard or go home I guess.