Last evening, I removed my tumbled rocks from their three barrels . I had been tumbling them in water for about two days, and then I decided to rinse and add more water and a teaspoon of borax. I was in no rush to put them back in Stage #1.
Lots of agates!
Results? I’m starting to see a sheen on some of the rocks, even when they’re dry!
Tigers Eye
How wonderful is that? I looked at every rock and determined that around eight stones were ready to move to Stage #2. They are perfect. They have no nicks, so I’ve set them aside in their own container, and there they will stay until I start Stage #2.
Most of the rocks featured here are Bahia agates, which have been in my rock tumbler for a month.
Say hello to Tiger’s Eye; they’ve been tumbling for over a week.
They look much different than when I added them to the rock tumbler last week.
Tiger’s Eye happens to be one of my favorite stones. Although it’s only been a week, they’ve already started to change in appearance, and that shimmer that I love to see in Tiger’s Eye has made an appearance.
The majority of these rocks will be going right back to Stage #1. There are still a lot of imperfections that I could feel as I ran my fingers over each rock; only about four rocks will be set aside and waiting for others to join them in Stage #2, and I’m perfectly fine with that.
New to Rock Tumbling
I’m new to rock tumbling, although not rock gathering, which I’d occasionally do when I found a rock of particular interest. At the time, I did not know they had a name for that (rock-hounding). All I knew was that I enjoyed collecting them and would likely tumble rocks someday. That someday happened last month when I finally purchased my rock tumblers. I did a lot of research, especially fond of Michigan Rocks YouTube videos that equipped me with a lot of knowledge about how to tumble rocks successfully. What I appreciated about Rock, aka Michigan Rocks, is that his videos are thorough. He’s genuinely passionate about rock tumbling, and I consumed many of his videos. I left with a deeper understanding of rock tumbling. The common pitfalls plaguing those new to rock tumbling and the knowledge that it might take months to get shiny rocks through tumbling. It’s a process. Since I’m a process crafter, I wasn’t deterred by this. No, it intrigued me even more.
Choosing the suitable tumbler for me
On the rock tumbling forums I frequented, Lortone was often referred to as the ‘ultimate tumbler’ by loyalists to the brand, and after more research, I decided that would also be my brand of choice. And that’s where it got interesting. Who knew that a Lortone rock tumbrel or any other quality tumbler was in such high demand? Attempting to find a Lortone rock tumbler proved to be a challenge. Everywhere I looked online, they were sold out. It wasn’t until I saw a post on the Reddit Rock Tumbling forum that I got lucky. According to a post, the author urged people to check out Jerry’s Rock and Gem’s. I snapped up a Lortone 3 – 1.5 rock tumbler for myself. A few days later, I was on the Lortone website, and you wouldn’t know they had the Lortone qt66 in stock. I snagged one of those, also. For vibratory tumblers (used by some for Stage #2 – Stage #4), I was interested in the Lot-O-Tumbler; however, I started hearing rumblings that the newer tumblers did not appear to have the same quality as the older tumblers. Because of that, I researched more and ultimately purchased the Mini Sonic 4 vibratory tumbler made by Diamond Pacific, and just like the Lortone tumblers, I found the popular vibratory tumblers hard to find.
Moving forward
Eventually, I believe I’ll purchase additional machines for cutting; however, for now, I am content and am simply enjoying the tumbling experience.
