Feather River Competition

[roni]

Has anyone submitted their competition rocks yet?  My best 5 are being mailed next week.  
Good luck everyone!

[mdjunkie]

I still have some in stage 1. I've been tumbling them in 3lb barrels hoping that it would prevent fractures and spalls. A few pieces will never be rid of the pinholes. I am hoping to move them on to the minisonic as soon as they are finished with rough grind.
I do have a lot of nice looking stones so far, but they have lost quite a bit of size. I had 1 piece that looked like a glazed donut. Not sure if it's chalcedony, but whatever it is, wore off too fast. I wished I had a cabbing machine or grinder I could have used on these to get them ready for tumbling. I'm hoping the 5 I send in are good enough to have a chance.

[cthomas]

Mailed mine off today. Not really happy with any of them. they are way too small for one but they are the only ones I ended up with without pin holes in them. But they all have some minor cracks. Hopefully everyone else had similar problems.

Beautiful rock though. Love the pieces I was left with despite their imperfections.

[Bob]

After a week of rough grind months ago, I thought this is going to be easy, getting smooth quickly. That's before the pinholes and internal cracks started appearing that seemed to never stop. I have 8-9 that will come out of polish tonight, but they don't impress me very much. Will send in 5 anyway.

[rockbrain]

mdjunkie @, cthomas , and Bob. Good luck to all of you and keep us informed. Looking for a podium sweep!

[mdjunkie]

I still have at least 1/3 in rough. There are just too many flaws that keep popping up. I thought this stone was going to polish well and fairly quickly, but as it seems others have experienced as well, it turned out to be a tough one to get right.  You could keep trying for perfection, but....

As for the rest, I haven't even put them in the vibe yet, I had been waiting for them all to leave stage 1. That seems impractical now. Of the ones ready to go into the vibe tumbler, I don't believe there's any bigger than 1"x2"x1". We'll see how they turn out I guess.

[python]

Good luck to all that entered!

[pebblesky]

Very curious. Would you share some of the tumbled stones of this China Hollow Jasper that are NOT submitted for contest?

[orrum]

X2 pebblesky

[geoff59]

I selected my rocks for submission before they went in to final polish. They are still in polish, with the 3 lb rotary drum filled almost entirely with small pellets. I will be taking them out within the next few days. I hope at least 1 of us here places within the top 3! Good luck everyone!

This China hollow rock surely is beautiful stuff, reminds me a lot of some of the better petrified wood in a lot of ways (to look at), lots of variation. Typically I don’t work a lot with brown rocks in general, unless it is really spectacular…. I will be purchasing some of this direct from the mine very soon. 

[geoff59]

here are the 5 I’m shipping out this morning. A couple of these have the same, tiny vug/crack issues some of you have been having, and as a result I’m also not happy or confident with these going, but they are for sure the best 5 I have.

[pebblesky]

These seem to have very good shine. Best of luck!

[Bob]

They look good to me too! Mine are more dirty yellow than that. Coming out of polish tomorrow and I'm so looking forward to getting them out of my sight. I don't think they will look as good as yours.

[Bob]

Kind of lousy photo I know. Got them out today and so glad to be rid of them.

[mdjunkie]

I am on the next to last stage with most. I will change them to polish tomorrow (mini-sonic). I use tin oxide as my polish with most jasper. I do have one special one that I am trying to rush through a rough stage to rid it of a spall. It is a blue/purplish color that somehow fits with the browns and tan of the others.
I will post photos when finished. And I will be glad they're gone too. This stuff seemed to be a chore to work on.

[chris1956]

Well here is a group shot and closeups of a few that I didn't send in.   If you are wondering about the ones I sent in, well, I forgot to take a picture of them.  Think I was glad to get them in the mail and out of my life.     I was really hoping that the large long one would be one I sent in.  It looked great until the final polish stage when all of a sudden two soft spots appeared in the white part and kept getting bigger (see closeup).   Couldn't get rid of them without taking that end off.  I noticed a couple of these that I have had in a bag for a few weeks developed a white film on them.  I hope the ones I sent in didn't do that.  









Chris

 

[stefan]

Some good looking tumbles. I sent mine in last week after spend WAY too much time picking 5. I am getting old as I never took a picture of my entries. I just spent 20 minutes trying to find the pictures I never took on my phone. Getting old sucks- I do not recommend it lol. (actually my 17 year old granddaughter has moved in with us, so a lot of my free time is consumed with dealing with teen drama lol)

[mdjunkie]

I am a little late with my pictures of my competition rocks. The first show the ones I had ready in time. The second, these are my picks (-the leftmost one, and the small one one the right, my bad).
The rest are some good and bad rocks. Unfortunately, a lot of my rocks started to fracture and pit with soft spots in the final polish. I made sure to provide plenty of cushioning for them. The one that looks like wood, and the teardrop (kind of) shaped one, do not have fractures, just lighting makes it appear that they are.

[mdjunkie]

Just wanted to say good luck to everyone who entered! There are some good contenders.

[cthomas]

The results are posted
www.featherriverrocks.org/rock-tumbling-contest/

But I'm going to start a new thread for discussion if there isn't one already.