Post by jamesp on Jul 18, 2022 9:28:21 GMT -5
Lucky you Patty. What a fine smorgasbord of fine rocks. Anxious to see how you turn them out.
Those that see images in rocks regularly are special people. "Special" meaning a unique creed all to their own
. Perhaps a powerful imagination or with deep brain scars from substance abuse in another life drives them to see these images. I'll just leave that out there and wait for deserved pointed retorts. Helmut in place...
As far as a certain type of tumble polishable or tumble not-polishible rock it involves getting to know that particular rock.
rockpickerforever said "Depending on their hardness, they can take a great shine!"
I ran into this with Alabama petrified wood. It varied greatly in it's silicification content. Unfortunately many of the more colorful material was soft and did not polish(for me). No matter, I would roll both soft and hard together and be content with the resulting polished and matte finish tumbles. BUT, I did learn what to, and what NOT to, collect in the field. Some of the petrifications were so poor they resembled brown rotten wood and smelled like rotten wood go figure.
Jasper from the Rio Grande valley was the same aggravating way, some of the prettiest specimens were soft and would not polish(for me). Such rocks are teasers.
Jean mentioned the coral is hard. YES, it is always hard. It is harder than the hardest Alabama petrified wood ! But you could rest assured that the coral would take a killer shine. The drawback to coral is it requires being run in step 1 forever as compared to the hardest Bama wood that would shape twice as fast as the coral.
When it comes down to the best rocks to tumble for a fine polish their higher hardness is a benefit. Except the hardest rocks take much longer to shape. Of course that is what separates diamond from ruby or emerald. Diamond is several times harder than both of those gems. And this apparently turns ladies on; of course they would choose the hardest rock in the world as their favorite.
The darker rocks in the pan at top of photo were collected from the lower wetter well silicified deposits. They will polish. The lighter more colorful material in lower of photo was collected in higher/dryer ground. But many of the lighter colors were also well silicified.
Those that see images in rocks regularly are special people. "Special" meaning a unique creed all to their own
. Perhaps a powerful imagination or with deep brain scars from substance abuse in another life drives them to see these images. I'll just leave that out there and wait for deserved pointed retorts. Helmut in place...As far as a certain type of tumble polishable or tumble not-polishible rock it involves getting to know that particular rock.
rockpickerforever said "Depending on their hardness, they can take a great shine!"
I ran into this with Alabama petrified wood. It varied greatly in it's silicification content. Unfortunately many of the more colorful material was soft and did not polish(for me). No matter, I would roll both soft and hard together and be content with the resulting polished and matte finish tumbles. BUT, I did learn what to, and what NOT to, collect in the field. Some of the petrifications were so poor they resembled brown rotten wood and smelled like rotten wood go figure.
Jasper from the Rio Grande valley was the same aggravating way, some of the prettiest specimens were soft and would not polish(for me). Such rocks are teasers.
Jean mentioned the coral is hard. YES, it is always hard. It is harder than the hardest Alabama petrified wood ! But you could rest assured that the coral would take a killer shine. The drawback to coral is it requires being run in step 1 forever as compared to the hardest Bama wood that would shape twice as fast as the coral.
When it comes down to the best rocks to tumble for a fine polish their higher hardness is a benefit. Except the hardest rocks take much longer to shape. Of course that is what separates diamond from ruby or emerald. Diamond is several times harder than both of those gems. And this apparently turns ladies on; of course they would choose the hardest rock in the world as their favorite.
The darker rocks in the pan at top of photo were collected from the lower wetter well silicified deposits. They will polish. The lighter more colorful material in lower of photo was collected in higher/dryer ground. But many of the lighter colors were also well silicified.
