Let's Talk About Rocks

Moonspine

2358

109

Garden Variety Rocks

So I hear you like shiny things? Gems, jewels? Preciouses? Well, what if I told you that you could make your own shiny things from your average, run-of-the-mill rocks just lying around on the ground? Rocks you may find in your yard, a nearby creek, or on a hiking trail?

The Tools

This is the type of thing you'll need to make this shiny dream a reality. It's a thing called a rock tumbler. You can think of it like a sideways washing machine. It has an electric motor that's designed to run 24/7 for weeks at a time.

This one's a toy that you can find practically everywhere (especially around Christmas.) It will set you back about $40, and they usually come with enough abrasives to tumble a batch or two of rocks. The barrel can only fit about 0.5 lbs (that's ~227 grams) or rocks, and it's made of plastic so it's incredibly noisy, but it's a good choice if you're just playing around or if you're not sure you want to make too many shinies.

I hear tell that these machines wear out after not too many batches so... you get what you pay for.

Better Tools

Or, you get a more hobbyist-level tumbler. This one's a Lortone 33B. It has two 3 lb capacity rubber barrels. It's much quieter (sounding a bit like a dishwasher or an angry aquarium). It will also supposedly last for years with proper maintenance (i.e. oiling.) This one is in the neighborhood of $120 though, so it;s your call.

Consumables

So how do you use it? Well, the basic theory for polishing anything is to scratch the hell out of it. Yes, you heard me right. To polish something, you scratch it up using random patterns and successively smaller grains of abrasives. Well, these are the abrasives.

This is a 4-step kit. The first step is a coarse silicon carbide (super hard stuff, only diamond is harder). The second step is a finer grade of silicon carbide. Then comes the aluminum oxide (or, as you may know it, ruby dust.) Finally, you finish it off with an even finer grade of aluminum oxide. Many abrasives exist, but kits are great for convenience.

So what do you do with it? Easy! Just load in some rocks, some abrasive, and some water. Seal the barrel up, put it on the tumbler, and let it run for a week or so!

Yes, you heard right. Each of the four steps takes 7-10 days. Possibly even longer if the rocks you're using are particularly hard or lumpy. It takes a long time to get shinies, but it's a very hands-off affair. The only interaction is in between steps, so it's a nice thing to just have running in the background. This machine is basically an artificial erosion simulator, so it's still a lot faster than nature.

Open it up!

After each step, you'll see something like this when you open the barrel. A gross, gray sludge. That's rock particles and whatever abrasive you put in. DO NOT wash this down the drain! Clogs WILL occur. This is best dumped into a hole in the yard. If you don't have a yard, the cleanup can be the hardest part of this entire process. I, personally, dump my wastewater into used soda bottles and pitch them. The slurry is just mud anyway, and the bottles were destined for the landfill, so it's not quite as evil as it sounds. But you'll ultimately have to make the call on how to dispose of it.

After Step 1

This is how the rocks in #1 look after step 1 (coarse grit). Notice how they're a lot less lumpy? You may also start to notice some color you'd never seen before. Even ugly rocks can sometimes be made more colorful through this process.

After Step 2

The same rocks after step 2. The rocks at this stage are approximately the same shape, but their surfaces are much smoother. They feel like frosted glass.

After Step 3

After step 3 (pre-polish), the rocks begin to take on a dull shine. Just keep going! They'll be full-blown shinies soon enough!

After Step 4

The same rocks after step 4 (polish). Notice how they're pretty shiny, but maybe not quite as shiny as you'd like them? Well, that's mostly because the polish is super fine and likes to stick to things. It's incredibly hard to wash this stuff off. So what's the solution?

There's an optional step 5. It's called burnishing. Basically, you put the rocks in with some ground up soap. Ivory bar soap or dreft detergent are ones I've seen talked about. After a few hours...

After Burnishing

... the shininess will improve dramatically! Congratulations! You're all done! Now you can enjoy their shininess forever. My preciouses...

Now, I've left out some important details here. There are quite a few more things to note (including ceramic tumbling media, plastic pellets, the importance of really scrubbing your barrels clean between steps, and maybe some minutiae I've forgotten.) There are great resources on the Interwebz for would-be shiny-makers though. I recommend rocktumbler.com actually (as obvious as that address is):
http://rocktumbler.com/tips/rock-tumbler-instructions/#gsc.tab=0

Show Me the Shinies!

Okay okay, since you were such a good audience, here are some closeups of some of the better looking rocks in that batch.

Granite

Granite (Another Angle)

Unknown

Probably one of my favorites in the batch. It has a lot of character. But I'm not quite sure what it is.

Quartz

Actually, something like 12% of the earth's crust is quartz. There's a high chance that you're going to get quartz in nearly any batch of rocks you pick up.