Tumble and Polish

I’ve been google-researching rock tumbling and came across a phenomenal blog called Tumblestoneblog. I have learned so much from John and his blog. Most especially from his series called Six Past TumbleStone Posts of Interest to Beginning Tumble Polishers . Almost all of the information I garnered from John and these posts shape what and how and I tumble stones. John’s posts are easy to follow and he not only shares and shows what he does but he also shares the why behind it as well. If you are thinking about, or have just started out with rock tumbling, I highly recommend checking out Tumblestoneblog. Just be sure to grab a coffee before you start reading and make sure you don’t have anywhere to be for the next 3-4 hours!!

Another must read from John’s blog, especially if you’re thinking about getting into rock tumbling is “What Do I Need to Start Tumble Polishing Stones Myself? And What Will It Cost Me?” Changing Prices, New Grits and Polish. This post is the updated version to the one I first read (which has an extra stage in it) so I’ve linked it instead. It’s very informative, very practical and full of handy tips!!

Note: I’m still writing these posts retro-spectively and using my notes/tumbling logs. Btw, keeping a tumbling log is one of the best things I learned from John’s TumblestoneBlog! This is my adapted log – iteration #4 – it should automatically download the pdf for you.

Some things I’ve learned so far:

Using a number of things I’d learned from the Tumblestoneblog, I was excited to start my second load of stones on their tumbling journey! I still didn’t think to take any photographs OR count the number of stones I was tumbling. (Duh!)

After 10 days on Stage 1 (7 Tbspns coarse grit), I meticulously cleaned the stones. The barrel was ready for Stage 2 (7 Tbspns medium grit). I must have been busy, because the stones spent 14 days tumbling in the medium grit. Afterwards, I did remove some small stones (not sure why, I didn’t say in my notes).

Thanks to John, I purchased some sunlight soap bars with my groceries. I gave the stones a 5 hour soap tumble. Unfortunately my tumbler started squeaking but a belt replacement fixed that quick smart. I could not get over just how grey the water still was after 5 hours in the soap tumble. I was sure I’d given those stones a really good rinse and wash. It’s just goes to show how much the eye misses!

On to Stage 3 (7 Tbspns Fine grit 600g). I added in some stones that I felt could do with a redo from my first ever load of stones. 11 days later, and another soap clean – 3 hours this time since the grit is much finer. After adding in 9 extra stones I mixed the 7 Tbspns of tin powder with water first. (I learned that from Tumblestone Blog too) Then I added the powder/water mix to the stones. Also included in this Stage 4 (and it’s a must) are plastic pellets. These pellets help cushion the smoothed stones and help to prevent scratching and/or pitting – although that’s not always the case. After 11 days in the Tin polish the stones were finished off with a 2 day tumble in Borax with pellets. In the tumbler instruction booklet, this is Stage 5 (Optional) and it’s known as a burnishing stage.

In my log I’ve noted that lots of the stones had tiny pits. I do remember feeling a little disappointed with the results of this batch of stones. They didn’t seem to turn out as ‘nice & smooth’ as the my first batch of tumbled stones. I’d taken more time and more care with each stage/step. I do think that I do need to be a little more particular about which stones go through to the next stage and which stones get taken out to do a repeat of a stage.

Most Important:

Batch: 2 | Collected from The Cliffs, Papatotara | 18 May 2022 – 4 July 2022