|
Post by docone31 on Nov 28, 2003 18:48:39 GMT -5
The only reason I tumble the emeralds and saphires/rubies, is to see the polarization and faults before faceting. I have tried a lot of different ways to polish emeralds, the translucent ones, and I cannot get much of a shine. What the tumbling does for me is to locate excellent grade stones from the crud. I have found some excellent gem quality stones in the morass. I have found two spectacular rubies that even with cleaning looked like asphalt. I have also found some brilliant star rubies and saphires. I have never gotten an emerald to shine with final polish, whether cerium, tin, or aluminum oxide. I also agree with Sir Roxalot. I like that handle, the Mohs scale is interesting. With talc at one, and diamond at ten, the first presumption is it is linear. Not so. If talc is one, and chalk, selenium at two, we would have traveled from Texas to Floriduh. The difference between eight and nine is similar. Basically we would have traveled around the planet with degrees between the measured points. Nine to ten is radically longer. Nine would be Greenwich, ten would be the moon. I do so love the dynamics which lay under our feet!
|
|
|
Post by puppie96 on Nov 29, 2003 13:27:18 GMT -5
There's so much great information on this board and I'm so glad I found you. Now my cable modem is working again for the moment, so I can actually read & post at a normal speed--YEA. I'm finding that the ruby/emerald bit is really a learning experience for me. I'm using the vibrating tumbler as I believed I mentioned, and have gradually found that if I follow Raytech's minimal directions, I end up with stones stuck in sludge and therefore not tumbling! The trick seems to be to rinse out a lot of the sludge before every recharge, once I started doing that, I seemed to be getting more bang for the buck for the grit. I have a full load, finally, of reasonably smoothed saph/ruby although I have never completely gotten rid of the surface scoring and pits. I decided to move up a step and already some of the pieces have a really beautiful luster, and this is stuff that came from the Ebay 1 lb. bags. I'm impressed! As a total novice at this, I would be quite pleased to have these rocks polished up and I'm thinking it looks promising. I've got the emerald in the barrel and gradually some nice looking crystals have popped out. However, it's been a much slower process and I'm concerned, of course, that as these crystals pop out in the barrel they will get chewed to pieces. But then for $8-10/pound I guess I can afford some trial and error -- reading the Ebay ads, not to mention some of the posters on this board, can give you high hopes for finding the "Hope Emerald" [Ruby/Sapphire]. Ha Ha!
|
|
|
Post by docone31 on Nov 30, 2003 21:39:37 GMT -5
Definately pick out the crystals and put them aside. You never know when you will get into faceting and then the real fun starts! With the lime green emeralds that are translucent, preforming and then tumbling will produce a different outcome. The rubies/saphires the same. You might find some stars in the batch. Keep these aside also, they will scream to be made into cabachons. Keep tumbling the black ones untill they show colours. I have used them for filler in tumbles and they eventually have shown the classic green and red/blueish. Some have just tumbled away and amounted to nothing except dunnage.
|
|
|
Post by puppie96 on Dec 1, 2003 22:24:14 GMT -5
Hi Docone, This is great info. I'm not losing patience with it at all. I've been seeing change at every wash up and the vibratory tumbler is good for this, since it requires frequent recharging. I've been maybe pushing the time on this load, but I decided to see what would happen if I moved ahead, in part because I think I don't like losing as much stone as I have. If I get some that polish, fine, if I don't, easy enough to back up! I know what you mean about that black stuff. It seems impervious! Oddly enough, it's finally beginning to wear off of one stone now that I have them in a finer grind. I'm scratching my head but not complaining. And last, I get that feeling from you and just about everybody I talk with that you just KNOW that I'll get hit with the irresistible urge to get out there and cab something, and then it's a short step to faceting.......AAARGH! We've unleashed a monster!
|
|
|
Post by docone31 on Dec 1, 2003 23:36:23 GMT -5
The black with the emeralds is carbon. A simple grinding wheel and a little time before the grit cycles really changes the outcome. Have fun
|
|
|
Post by puppie96 on Dec 2, 2003 1:45:00 GMT -5
Docone, Yes, carbon which to all appearances has gone all the way to diamond-like hardness! Not to worry. Patience is paying off. The odd thing is that the black finally seems to be eroding away under a finer grit. Go figure. Grinding wheels...indeed...you are dangling too much temptation in front of me.
|
|
Noah
starting to spend too much on rocks
![*](//storage.proboards.com/forum/images/stars/star_teal.png)
Member since November 2003
Posts: 102
|
Post by Noah on Dec 2, 2003 12:46:20 GMT -5
This is actually directed at the top notch guys on this board, and anyone who knows of a good machine. Tumbling is going awesome right now for the beautiful Qt66 is flying day and night alongside my 3lb Chicago...now I've been doing great stuff and have had considerable requests for Spheres from people....and i just stand there with a blank stupid look on my face. I'm now going to need to look into sphering. Does any of the Rock guru's out there have any suggestions as to how to go about this, and perhaps...some advice as to whether or not investing the $1500 or so into a machine is really worth it.
-Noah-
|
|
|
Post by Noosh9057 on Dec 2, 2003 12:51:44 GMT -5
Would some baking sota or Tums help Reduce the gas?
|
|
|
Post by docone31 on Dec 2, 2003 12:58:17 GMT -5
Sphere making is quite do-able. There are some machines that can be purchased, and there are a lot of machines that are homemade. For an homemade machine, you will need 2" dia black pipe, a dremel, rubber cups. There are some books on the matter, and some real good sites on the subject. Sphere making is coming back, as there is a demand for them once again. Baking soda and tums might reduce the gas for the momet, but it is not an alternative to opening the bbl.
|
|
Noah
starting to spend too much on rocks
![*](//storage.proboards.com/forum/images/stars/star_teal.png)
Member since November 2003
Posts: 102
|
Post by Noah on Dec 2, 2003 13:02:16 GMT -5
Thanks Docone, your a great help as usual...oh any btw remember that setelene torch issue we were having...well it seems that a few companies have now taken it upon themselves to build these little torches called pencil torches...that run off of an excited version of Butane and they burn a beautiful rate of 2000 degrees. Bought myself 2 of them for 2.50 each. They are refillable as well...I just hope they will last a little while...on the reverse note...I have also purchased a Propane torch to do some heavy duty brazing. Anyway I'm off to return to my wonderful world of Silversmithing for today.
-Noah-
|
|
|
Post by docone31 on Dec 2, 2003 13:11:44 GMT -5
Noah, let me know how the pencil torch works out. I would love to get a low btu torch for filligree. I get so far and poof! puddle of time spent work. I recently purchased, actually won, a bernzomatic mini torch. It is a little bit of a thing that takes both Mapp, and propane. It uses a remote propane tank. So far, so good. I can do more detail work with hard solder without fusing the seam line. I won the Ace National Hardware contest, and got a signed football by John Madden. Who is John Madden? It was apraised at 85$. Hey guys, first 85$ in trade, barter, or cash gets it.
|
|
Noah
starting to spend too much on rocks
![*](//storage.proboards.com/forum/images/stars/star_teal.png)
Member since November 2003
Posts: 102
|
Post by Noah on Dec 2, 2003 15:25:03 GMT -5
Hey all, Yeah I know its been pretty quiet with me not posting for like 4 days. I've got my Qt66 now running with 5 lbs of aventurine, and i must say that rock is a pain in my arse...it broke my damn hammer...anyway just an update...got my Assortment of junk in 220 grit phase, and the aventurine is on its first 24 hrs of coarse. I'm gonna be busy tumbling for a while thanks to william for the awesome agate, and obsidian. sweet looking stuff can't wait to see how it comes out.
-Noah-
|
|
|
Post by puppie96 on Dec 3, 2003 2:27:28 GMT -5
Hi all, Those rubies and sapphires are in a polish now. I am very excited about this. Coming out of the prepolish there were lots that had a really nice sheen already. Actually, I've noticed this quality in some from the very beginning. I didn't go into this with perfect surfaces, although whatever scoring and pitting is present is shallow at this point. I'm basically hoping that SOME will polish -- this will at least give me some sense of minimal time on stones that look pretty good and also may help see any crystal parts that have been non-evident. This is just theory on my part, but it makes sense to me. I'm not real concerned about grit carryover at this point, since one advantage of the vibratory tumbler is that you wash out and then return to the same step -- so after the first day I'll be washing it out which should remove any grit lurkers if they are there, plus with the hardness of corundum how much can a couple grit lurkers hurt. (I realize this is heresy.) Oh well, at least I'm trying to give this some thought.
|
|
|
Post by Noosh9057 on Dec 3, 2003 8:49:34 GMT -5
Well let us all know how the rubies and sapphires come out.
Good luck
|
|
James
freely admits to licking rocks
![*](//storage.proboards.com/forum/images/stars/star_pink.png) ![*](//storage.proboards.com/forum/images/stars/star_pink.png)
Member since October 2003
Posts: 876
|
Post by James on Dec 3, 2003 18:42:36 GMT -5
Today was a good day! I finally finished up a load of moonstone I've been working on for over a month now. It came out looking really nice. I moved my brecciated jasper to 220 grit, started a load of spiderman jasper and recharged my texas limb cast/northridge plume agate. I hope to get the texas limb cast into 220 grit by next wendsday. In addition to all that, I have a 15lb load of sheen/rainbow obsidian due to go into 220 grit by next wendsday. All is looking good. ![;)](//storage.proboards.com/forum/images/smiley/wink.png)
|
|
|
Post by puppie96 on Dec 3, 2003 22:39:22 GMT -5
Congratulations James! This sounds great. I think I got really lucky having my first 2 batches be beautiful, considering the confused mix of stuff I threw in. Meanwhile, seems to be too early to tell whether any of the saph/ruby batch is taking a polish. Some were already very glossy. At the moment I'm getting impressed with the emeralds. These are in the barrel so they don't get checked so often, but they have rounded off and lost a lot of the matrix. I threw a few very big ones in with the sapphire and ruby in the vibrator, and though they did, as I expected, lose a lot of rock, they have gotten a nicely smoothed shape (with some matrix still attached, actually looking kind of pretty) and look like they may be polishing better than the sapphire. I hope tomorrow night I'll have more of an update. Thanks for asking. Oh, and the other thing (help thread) -- my barrel got stuck overnight, but when I elevated the non-drive side even more, it got going and stayed going.
|
|
James
freely admits to licking rocks
![*](//storage.proboards.com/forum/images/stars/star_pink.png) ![*](//storage.proboards.com/forum/images/stars/star_pink.png)
Member since October 2003
Posts: 876
|
Post by James on Dec 4, 2003 2:40:22 GMT -5
Well I hope those babies turn out good. To be honest, you've all scared me away from emerald/ruby/saphs because of the problems you've been having. It will be cool to see how they turn out. Post a picture when they're done. And good luck!
|
|
|
Post by puppie96 on Dec 4, 2003 3:08:34 GMT -5
James, all I can say is that I'm a beginner and I was hooked into the idea of tumbling these stones even before I got a tumbler, so I've read everything I can find and am doing a lot of trial and error. The only thing I'm certain of is that a vibe tumbler has got to be way way better for the saph/ruby but probably not the emeralds. I'll keep ya updated!
|
|
WilliamC
spending too much on rocks
![*](//storage.proboards.com/forum/images/stars/star_teal.png)
Member since August 2003
Posts: 416
|
Post by WilliamC on Dec 4, 2003 17:05:10 GMT -5
Greetings All, An update on my actual tumbliing activity, as opposed to tumbling-related activity ![;)](//storage.proboards.com/forum/images/smiley/wink.png) I've got one six lb barrel of blue and green aventurine in the first polish stage with aluminum oxide, one six lb barrel of gree/blue aventurine and some leopardskin jasper in 600 grit, one six-lb barrel of leopardskin in 220 grit, one six-lb barrel of rainbow obsidian in 220 grit, and another mixed barrel of aventurine/flame agate in 220 grit. I've also the 12-pounder ready to go as soon as I get some more rough grit, I'm out ![???](//storage.proboards.com/forum/images/smiley/huh.png) I have some flame agate, mahagony obsidian, and some nice pieces of yellow and breciated jasper which I obtained from another poster on this board just waiting their turn. I guess I'm going to have to break down and order another 5 lb bucket of grit, even though I would prefer to start buying in 50 lb bucket instead. It's just I don't want to pay so much for shipping right now...such a delima-bean ;D WilliamC
|
|
|
Post by puppie96 on Dec 6, 2003 18:21:12 GMT -5
Hi -- I was poking through a pound of emerald rough and found an unusual crystal. It's an inch long and about a quarter inch wide, very clear, and of a yellow green color which looks like the color of peridot, for instance, much more than even light emerald, which stays in the more blue green or mint green range, at least in my lots. What do you think? Beryl or possibly something else completely that got mixed into the batch accidentally? It's very odd, a clean loose crystal with no matrix attached. It looks like you could make a pretty nice cut stone out of it, if you liked the color, which may or may not appeal. Thanks!
|
|