Snakes and Stones

[Lord Sorril]

I had NO idea this could happen! What a mess! But I guess it could have been worse too- at least you weren't standing next to it. I knew there was a good story just waiting... TKS!

Yes, I was disappointed I hadn't noticed the issue earlier. In the back of my mind I know that grinding assorted unidentified minerals into dust while mixing them with water is a potentially disastrous combination...

[Lord Sorril]

Photo #62



Indian Tree agate comes in a wide variety of qualities from solid to porous. This piece pictured above is on the porous side.
Some people who tumble rocks are OCD about producing perfectly rounded and smooth specimens...they would have to tumble this piece down to the size of a jellybean.

Ball python in early shed for photo.

[Ascended]

Your thread is massive. I have tried to read it all but may have missed something.
Have you ever tried to tumble fluorite or calcite.
I found them too delicate to get a good polish. They tended to keep cracking even by lowering the grit size.
Any advice?

[Lord Sorril]

Your thread is massive. I have tried to read it all but may have missed something.
Have you ever tried to tumble fluorite or calcite.
I found them too delicate to get a good polish. They tended to keep cracking even by lowering the grit size.
Any advice?

Thanks, this thread just got started.

I have tumbled fluorite, but, not calcite yet. Photo #6 is actually Mexican Fluorite in Quartz matrix--difficult to tumble due to the varying hardness (Mohs 4 Fluorite, Mohs 7 Quartz). All steps post shaping were done in my Vibratory tumbler (UV-18), vibe tumblers are relatively gentle on the stones.

I have larger pieces of Chinese fluorite, but, they have quartz banding in them. I don't trust that they would tumble well. I did borrow a friends $6000 diamond wheel cabbing machine to shape a few of them (shown below). Don't think I will ever convince my gf to let me get one of those machines...unless I win the lottery...even then, maybe not....