New batch of polished rocks

[willjo]

Just finished polishing some Coastal plain chert, ground some of it into cab shapes before polishing

[Kyflintguy]

Thats pretty stuff! I always like getting a bag full of polished rocks as a child. Thanks for showing those!

[willjo]

We carry them to arrowhead shows and sell some of them and most people can't pass by them without at least looking at them.

[Ron Kelley]

Hey Johnny, That sure did polish up nice. Man the variety of colors is just amazing.

[willjo]

Almost as pretty as Flint ridge.

[Hoss]

Nice color variety Johnny.

[OnewiththewilD]

im curious if your able to drill thru the stone? like with a good quality thin masonry bit? them maybe try putting them thru the polisher and making pendants or beads?

[lukecreekwalker]

My neighbor always brought me back a bag of polished minerals from wherever they went. She knew I loved rocks. I even got a rock tumbler for my birthday one year. Didn't know you had to leave this thing on continuously for long periods of time and it was extremely loud. Had an extension cord running from our house to the outbuilding with this stupid contraption in there tumbling rocks. I was probably 10 years old at the time, and for some odd reason I put one of my best trilobite personal finds in the tumbler to polish it. Well the sand in the tumbler just eroded my fossil in to bits, and I didn't abandoned the task of polishing rocks after stage one. I think there were 3 stages but I cant remember. Is this how you polish these as well?

[willjo]

I polish them with a rotary tumbler for four weeks, starting with 80 grit, then 220 grit then 600 grit then aluminum oxide for hard stones.

[Hoss]

Do you do each grit for a week?

[willjo]

im curious if your able to drill thru the stone? like with a good quality thin masonry bit? them maybe try putting them thru the polisher and making pendants or beads?

You can drill them with a diamond drill but I haven't found the secret to deep drilling with these drills. It is easy to wire wrap the pendants without drilling

[OnewiththewilD]

maybe try drilling thru halfway on one side then drilling thru the other and connecting the holes? i make alot of pendants out of shell and slate and various other softer stones and thats usually how i drill them, i know the stuff your working with is probably much harder though.

[2ndoldman]

Johnny those are very nice and can see lots of people buying those off of you at the shows.
I also have a rock tumbler but I use mine for cleaning my finds on a daily basis.
Can you imaging the pile of stuff I would have set aside to clean if my tumbler was out of commission for three weeks?

[willjo]

Matt I do run each grit for a week at the time