I didn’t even open my rock tumbler last week. The last time I opened my lortone rock tumblers was week #7. Yes, I skipped by week #8. I thought about taking the rocks out but said… I’ll wait. Late this afternoon, I finally got around to opening my three barrels.
Week #9, Stage #1. Tumbled rocks just rinsed.
This is my six-pound barrel containing agates, tiger eye, and obsidian. I rinsed the rocks thoroughly and placed them back into the barrel with water, where they’ll tumble for about a day. I didn’t even add my teaspoon of borax. I will most likely add that tomorrow. As I rinsed the rocks today, I noticed several appear ready to move on to stage #2, and I could have already started stage #2.
Rose Quartz – Week #2
The majority of the rocks have been tumbling for nine weeks. However, the rose quartz rocks are new. This is their second week of being tumbled.
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.
