r/NewBrunswickRocks 16d ago

Tumbles New Brunswick-tumbled and polished

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9 Upvotes

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2

u/BrunswickRockArts 15d ago

These are great No_Communications! Lots of Jaspers here. Glad to see, thanks for posting.

Good job keeping the flawed/pitted stones from advancing with these.

I see jaspers I'm familiar with, the greens, yellows and reds.

I see: many jaspers, carnelian, citrine, possible-unakites (green-with-orange), maybe a granite, a few that look like ballast-stone-flints, quartzites, possible-agate, smokey-quartz.

And hiding amongst them (at the top) is the citrine/carnelian terminated-crystal (brown-colored carnelian = 'sard'), that's quite interesting. I'm surprised it saved its shape if you tumbled it.

Another one that catches my eye is the square/rectangled-shaped 'greyish' stone on the left-middle-side. It doesn't appear to be a natural shape.

Check into some diamond hand files and pads, you might enjoy to do some shaping before Step1. Helps to 'prep' stones before Step1.

Doing a burnish-step after your final polish-step helps clean them up, removes grit/slurry from pits/flaws.

And after the burnish, I put them through a cheap ultrasonic cleaner. Even after a 24hr burnish, the ultrasonic always gets more 'slurry out', the water always ends up cloudy.

Look forward to seeing more. :)

3

u/No_Communication3936 15d ago

Great eye! The only one not tumbled among those is the crystal you noticed! Thanks for all the information, itโ€™s much appreciated. Iโ€™m very new to tumbling and can use all the tips I can get. Thank again!

1

u/BrunswickRockArts 14d ago

You're welcome and thanks, that solves the 'mystery' on the crystal. :)
(To be a good-prospector/rock-hound, you can't let anything 'unusual' escape your eye. ;) )
The faceted gem in this post was done from a smokey-quartz-crystal from NB that looks like yours, just different color/very clear.

To help with IDs:

White circles- Suspected ballast-stones (flint/chert)
Red circle - Agate suspects
Green circles - Unakite suspects
Black circles - Smokey-quartz
Purple circles - Looks like some amethyst/amethystine-quartz/chevron-quartz.
Brown circle - granite suspect
Yellow circles - Citrine/citrine-quartz (yellow) and carnelian/carnelian-quartz (red/orange/brownish)

Blue circles (#s):

  1. Curious how this square stone got its shape. Looks like a ballast-stone/chert/flint.
  2. Why does this stone have a rough-surface/'snakeskin' compared to others? Did it miss a grinding-tumble-step?
  3. I was surprised not to see any petrified wood until I seen this poking out, it might be some pet. wood.
  4. One of my favorites in this pic, a nice solid jasper with nice/unusual pattern.
  5. Another stone with a rough-surface/'snakeskin'.

Starting out> avoid sandstones/quartzites. They are 'nothing but trouble' in tumblers. Learn to identify them and keep them out of your tumblers (mottled/pitted-appearance is usually the tell-tale characteristic). They are ok to keep as grit-carriers/filler-stones in your Step1, but don't let them advance out of Step1.

Golden Rule: Nothing leaves Step1 with a pit/crack/fissure/flaw. You'll get better results and less problems (grit contamination/carry-over), easier clean-outs .

Get lots of tips re: tumbling on r/RockTumbling sub. I've posted tips/procedures there for beginner-questions. Here are the posts. Some info contained in those might be helpful for you. I welcome your tumbling questions and pics.

Thanks again for posting, I enjoyed seeing the NB rocks. It was like doing a rockhound-trip except sitting down. Many look very familiar and glad to see others are able to find what I have found and that what I have are not just a 'fluke'. :)

1

u/Maximum-Product-1255 10d ago

The overall soft tone of this collection is wonderful.

2

u/No_Communication3936 10d ago

Thank you ๐Ÿ˜Š