Before these stones officially became Batch 70 the majority of them had already tumbled once in F60grit. Out of the 50 stones, 33 were ready for Stage 2 (placed in the readies drawer) and the rest (17 stones) went back in the barrel along with some hydrogrossular garnets originally in Batch 63 that needed a redo.
Along with some new untumbled stones, 53 are being tumbled again in the F60grit. All the stones are of course from my local, Gemstone Beach in Orepuki, Southland NZ! Included in this batch is a larger, wavy looking stone that could be petrified wood. It was picked up by new rockhunting buddy Shona, whom I met down at Gemstone Beach along with her best friend and fellow rockhound Lee.
These ladies had come all the way down from the Manawatu in the North Island (not that far from my hometown of Hawkes Bay) and we enjoyed a couple of days fossicking together on Gemstone Beach before they headed off to Slope Point.
When that wavy-looking stone/petrified wood is tumbled and polished it will be given back to Shona as a surprise!
Batch 70: 3lb Tumbler 2
Stage 1: F60grit
Number of Stones: 53
Weight in: 993g
2 Tbspns of F60grit
1 Tbspn Borax
No pellets added
Days Tumbling: 10
Weight out: 901g – loss of 92g
8 stones not ready for Stage 2 (redo). 15 stones with shallow pits or grooves but moving to Stage 2 anyway.
Stage 2: 220grit
Number of Stones: 45+4+2=51
Weight in: 937g
3 Tbspns of 220grit
No Borax (forgot to add it)
Plastic Pellets added for cushioning.
Days Tumbling: 10
Weight out: 852g – loss of 85grams
Stage 3: 400grit
Number of Stones: 51
Weight in: 852g
3 Tbspns of 400grit
No borax added
Plastic pellets added
Days Tumbling: 12
Weight out: 745g – loss of 107grams
At the end of Stage 3 the stones were looking good (on track from polishing) and as there are some really pretty stones in this batch I wanted to make sure that they all take a polish well. I decided to add in the optional stage of 600grit bumping the polish to Stage 5. Doing this extra grit tumble for 7 days will compensate for any surface material that hasn’t quite smoothed out enough to take a polish but isn’t really noticeable to the naked eye but shouldn’t take away much more volume.
Stage 4: 600grit
Number of Stones: 51
Weight in: 745g
3 Tbspns of 600grit
No Borax
Plastic pellets added
Days Tumbling: 7
Weight out: 709g – loss of 36grams
Pre-polish Soap
1 tspn grated sunlight soap. 24 hour tumble for a clean before polish.
Pre-polish Soap Tumble: 24 hours
Batch 70: Newbies & Redos
Batch 70: Ready for Stage 2
Ready to Polish
Batch 70 was transferred to 6lbT1 for the polish tumble and was added to Batch 71 to help make up a full load for polishing.
Stage 4: Polish Mix
Number of Stones: 48+146=194
Weight in: 1914 grams
Polish Mix (NEW): 12 Tbspns of polish mixed with 400mls of clean water. Pellets added. (Experimenting with “thickness” of polish mix)
Days Tumbling: 10
Weight out: Did not weigh
Stage 5: Burnishing
My good friend JP says “some tumblers are abandoning the term “burnishing” for this stage as they associate it with a dry process, not a wet process. However, the core meaning of “burnish” is to polish and I believe it can be used cover a range of processes.” I agree with him so I’m going to go back to calling this stage burnishing.
Batches 70 & 71 spent 3 days burnishing in 3 tablespoons of borax + water.
Polish Complete
In the polish complete image above I have separated the stones into a left side and a right side. On the left, the polished finished of the stones is very pleasing. On the right, however, the finished polish of the stones is disappointing.
Upon reflection I think that I was not careful enough with the inspection of the stones and let these ones through to the next stage when they weren’t actually ready.
There may be one or two that are the type that don’t take a polish too well but for the most part I think the disappointing finish is a human error problem not a stone type problem.
Polished Stones of Interest: Batch 70
Batch 70 | 3lb Tumbler 2 | Gemstone Beach | 30 June – 8 August
Batch 70 & 71 | 6lb Tumbler 1 | Gemstone Beach | 9 August – 23 August 2024
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