Snakes and Stones

[Lord Sorril]

Thank you Richard and TrinityBlood. Some of the photos I take are better than others--sometimes I don't like a photo...but, it grows on me over time.

Beautiful photo Sorril! I know it's a little off topic, but would love to hear how you got into rock polishing, and a bit about you process if you have time.

Thank you, for the compliment!


I don't mind rambling about rocks: A lot of people I know that tumble rocks do it as a precursor to making jewelry...once the rock has been smoothed and polished they will use tools to carve grooves into the stones or drill holes and put a metal setting in it. There are a lot of specialized tools to accomplish this--all the way up to automatic faceting machines. Luckily I am not interested in making jewelry. I am also not a 'purist' that wants every stone absolutely round and without flaw.


As for my tumbling origin story: When I was young, very young (just barely walking): my sister got a cheapo rock tumbler kit (similar to the National Geographic ones that are currently sold as kits). My sister was very dedicated to maintaining the device and cleaning it every week. Over the course of months she finished polishing a few small batches of stones. The final product was like treasure to us, gleaming polished rocks with awesome patterns. My sister would insist that our family go on day trips to quarries and mines looking for rocks she could tumble--my parents found it amusing and humored her. I visited a lot of interesting places deep in the woods of New England. Unfortunately the cheap tumbler motor burnt out on her device within a few months and the replacement burnt out soon after...my parents did not know anything about them and figured that all motors would wear out relatively quickly due to constant use and it was not worth replacing them. Decades later (a few years ago) for my birthday (out of the blue) my sister gave me all of her original tumbled stones...I looked at them and they were TERRIBLE. My perception must have been mixed with my imagination as a kid. The rocks were full of pits and the polish was dull. I was shocked and disappointed. I was determined to reshape them into how I had seen them in my mind (or destroy them in the process). With great trial and effort I succeeded: in doing so I found it addictive to take something ugly and turn it into something beautiful---each stone like an individual unique work of art.


The process of rock tumbling itself is relatively straightforward: Take rough rocks, toss them in a tumbler with coarse Silicon Carbide (normally 60/90 grit) and some water, tumble them until they are rounded and desired imperfections are removed, then use increasingly finer grits to remove any scratches. At some point you switch from Silicon Carbide (cuts) over to Aluminum Oxide grit (smooths) and continue to work your way down through progressively finer grits until you reach the polish stage. There are many types of final polish--some are better at getting a shine on some stones more than others. Of course there are an inordinate amount of variables in this process, and it is not uncommon for beginners to be terribly discouraged by cheap kits that include inferior quality grit and mixed hardness stones which give you little/no chance to tumble them together without issue...