I love it when people ask me to tumble stones for them. Tumbling stones for others means that I can document the before and after looks of their stones. Sharing that information with them is something that I really enjoy doing! That’s why I am keen to blog about tumbling stones and the processes they go through!
A school colleague & friend asked me to tumble some “gems” (14) found at Gemstone Beach. It’s a place that my friend enjoys spending time at. I added in some stones collected from the Waiau River Mouth in September to make up the ‘load’. Also added were some stones from the holding box that needed a repeat 80/100grit tumble. I also included 19 stones collected from Gemstone Beach.
Documenting Before/After
I need to figure out a better way to take photographs. The Stage 3 images don’t really show the true state of the stones before they went into the polish. There’s quite a bit of shadowing.
After 34 days tumbling through the grit stages, the stones were ready to go into the 4lb tumbler for the final polish/borax tumbles.
I also added more stones from the holding container that were waiting for a polish/borax to help make up the load.
I had forgotten to weigh all the stones at the start but I did weigh them after the first tumble (977g). After Stage 2 the stones weighed 826g – loss of 151g. After Stage 3 they weighed 757g – a further loss of 69g. These stones did spend much longer at Stage 3 than usual – a total of 14 days. I did use pellets in Stages 2 & 3 as well.
That red stone wasn’t a poppy (orbicular) jasper. I think it was brecciated jasper. It was almost perfectly round. That’s what had really captured her eye.
The stones spent 8 days in the polish mix (it’s 2nd re-use) and 2 days in the borax tumble. There were 49 stones from Batch 9 (this one) and 40 stones from Batch 8 (written about previous here).
Other Stones in the Batch
I only took a “completed” photo of my friend’s stones at the end of Stage 6 (Borax). I don’t know what I was thinking!
Batch 9 | 3lb Tumbler 2 | Gemstone Beach; Waiau River Mouth; | 1 October 2022 – 4 November 2022
4lb Tumbler (combined Batch 8 & 9) | Polish & Borax | 4 November 2022 – 14 November 2022
Yes, brecciated jasper. Good job!