Cool Rocks

I didn't know what to do with them all, so I made this with chain, copper tape, solder and a piece of wood.

It's mostly rose quartz with an amethyst, a couple jade and a few I'm not certain of.

We got some smokey quartz, regular quartz, and I think some gneiss.

The regilar quartz was in as part of another batch, but the other rocks stayed ugly so I switched them out.

I was referred to this sub and told to share my picture. I got most of these at local rock swaps.

When I discovered the beige rocks on the left side, which had been in the tumbler for about two weeks, weren't going to be interesting, I switched them out for the smokey quartz and a few other things I'm not sure of on the right, which have been in for less than a day. The quartz in the middle were tumbled with the beige rocks. I included those in the new batch, too.

I don't know what kind, specifically. Ochre covers a wide range of natural earth pigments with different compositions, but usually iron-rich.

I dig this stuff out of cracks in the Canadian Shield for paint pigments. It's naturally colourfast and very close to, if not a little less pure than what's used in commercial paint.

They started rough and now they're not. I'll separate out all the large and small pieces for other batches and start adding grit and ceramic balls to the mix.

This is the most satisfying part because the rough edges wear down quite quickly at the beginning. After one day, all the sharps are gone.

Yeah, I forgot to take a pic before I started. I'll remember next time.

By the way, do any tumblers have tips for the polishing phase? I chose like size/hardness rocks, use the correct grit, and clean well between phases. I even tried the borax trick at the end, but still ended up with some dull rocks while others were quite smooth.

Any idea what kind it is?

I found it hiking near Lethbridge, Alberta years ago, just found it again while going through old boxes. The wavy lines look kind of organic, but I don't know about the rest.

Amethyst, citrine, and jade I think? I'm not sure about the reddish ones, but I know there are garnets out here.

Another week and they should be shiny, according to the manual.

Hope this ok. If not I'll remove. This is a cool rock. With a cool name. And a cool story.

I will downvote anyone who says salt.

Some kind of quartzy marbly thing? I found it by a hardware store in Northern Ontario.

Fits great in my wooden hand in my fruit bowl.

Said that they are petrified wood. I guess they look like it. $5

Thinking about cutting and polishing them. Then put them in some walking sticks I'm making.

I bought a rock tumbler specifically for grinding down minerals for pigments. I didn't expect it to come with a big bag of cool rocks and all the stuff to tumble. I know I know - the first hit is always free.

The clear one is just a broken piece of glass I tossed in to see what happened. What happened was it got smooth.

I found this in the dirt today. All one piece of whatever it is. Mostly greyish translucent with very oriented lines of brown in the corner section that makes it glow orange in the sunlight. The edge looks like it breaks like flint or obsidian. But the larger surfaces are like very smooth bark on a tree branch. Any ideas what it is?

So we have this rock that looks like a potato. I think everyone will agree that Kevin here looks like a potato. We found him on a long walk. Our first strategic use of Kevin, we scrubbed him and put him in a pile of potatoes that my mother was peeling for potato salad. Yara yara yara, much hilariously was had by all. I am trying to think of other pranks we've done on each other with Kevin. It's usually that one, we always find it hilarious (like the rubber lizard we put in each other's sinks. It's about time, and my wife's turn to prank someone, for that to happen I should get ready) you'd think we'd get tired of it but we love this rock.

My cat, she loves Kevin too. Cuddles with him all the time. All the time except today, it seems. She's been sick the last few days, so she's just cuddling with me when she's not playing. She will, however, pose with Kevin. She loves taking photos. So I included some cat tax.

I recently posted about the lapis lazuli a rockhounding buddy sent me.

But I wanted to destroy it.

My goal was to create the original ultramarine pigment of renaissance artists. After a few failed tries manually, I ordered a rock tumbler and — since lapis lazuli is SUPER hard and I didn't want to have to separate grit from pigment, I got steel paint mixing balls to grind it down. That way I can separate any steel bits at the end with a magnet.

After a week, the pieces look like this. It's so pretty I'm keeping these to polish and turn into, I donno, a necklace or witchcraft or something, while I let the balls work on the rest of the bits.

Type, shape, historical significance, scientific merit...