Fluorite - Rocks in a Box 38
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- Опубліковано 16 лис 2020
- Come take a look at one of the most difficult rocks I have ever tumbled.
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Kingsley North is a lapidary store in Michigan's U.P. They make a great cab machine and sell many other brands too. They have a huge selection rough rock, tumblers, grit, jewelry supplies etc. at good prices. I buy most of my coarse grit from here in 45 lb. bags. It's the best price I have found. If you buy using the following link, I make a small commission.
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I don't mind some fractures. It feels like it takes you "into" the rock.
I don’t mind if it’s a nice clean fracture, but I don’t like when it results in chips on the outside.
@@MichiganRocks agreed.
In their unpolished condition, they look like the crystallized rock candy. Lovely colors in the polished condition 👍
They do, don't they?
Note: probably shouldn't eat them.
I think you nailed it. Can't be held responsible for all the internal fractures. It is what it is. Well done. Thanks for sharing...
That's kind of how I feel. I did the best I could with the material I had.
I think the fractures are really beautiful. Proving once again that beauty is in the eye of the beholder. Thanks, Rob!
I'm glad you like them, because they're everywhere!
I like your honesty about the challenges with tumbling this type of rock. And after you mention some of the flaws it really becomes apparent. It is a great teaching piece. Thanks for sharing the good and the not so good stuff
This channel has always been about teaching to some extent. I don't see any point in pretending like everything goes well for me all the time. These took several tried to get this shiny.
They are beautiful, cracks and all. Thanks again for another rockin Tuesday.
Thanks for continuing to come back for more!
I don't remember ever seeing fluorite without some fractures. I think you did a great job getting the shine and shape you did. Well done, sir.
That's kind of what I thought. Oh well, it's a nice rock even with the fractures. It would be nicer without them though.
Gorgeous! I love fluorite.
I like the beautiful fluorite, both in the rough and polished. Yes you can get clean stones for faceting, but it all has plains running through it and will fracture easily. I like the patterns in them and the rainbow effects. A nice collection Rob
That's sort of what I figured. Those cleavage planes are all over this stuff.
I can see the colors. They are beautiful!
Gorgeous! Cracks and all!
You are the best at it i seen so far on the Net!! So nicely done , we got to watch your skill level go up & Up,. Thanks. More , Please .
These were done before I started making videos, so I don't think you got to watch this skill go up. There will be another Rocks in the Box next Tuesday. I can't believe how many of these I've done already.
I love the colours and the sparkle like jewels ! I didn’t know crystals can be tumbled !? 🥰✨👍
Sure, I have tumbled crystals, why not? Some amethyst I tumbled were in crystal form.
B-E-A-U-T-I-F-U-L!!! Thank you.
those fluorites are even more interesting! Thanks for sharing!
You're welcome!
Flourite is one of the stones I not have the pleasure of having I love the fact that it comes in different colors ! Very versatile and would make awesome jewelry !! And my fave was the stone that had the thin strips of different colors ! Thanks for sharing !
It is pretty stuff. I like when there's green and purple in the same rock.
Beautiful rocks
What you have is pretty typical for massive fluorite, Rob. It tends to be very fractured, unlike some of the gemmy crystals from England or Namibia. I'm actually surprised you got as good a polish as you did; excellent job! 👍😉
This stuff drove me crazy. I tried several things that didn't work nearly as well. Now I just need to remember what I did to get it this shiny. I have no complaints about the shine, just the fractures. I think a lot of the fractures are on natural cleavage planes.
@@MichiganRocks Have you checked Kingsley North for better quality material? On their fluorite page, there's a video about tumbling fluorite using a dry polish that may help...
@@captpaul8827 I haven't, but I will. I'd love to visit that store someday and pick out my own rocks, if they allow that. It's not really on the way to other places I tend to go in the U.P. The Rockshed also has instructions for dry tumbling fluorite in corncob. I wonder if it's the same recipe. I'm off to the Kingsley North site now!
Such gorgeous colors!!!
Yes they are!
Very beautiful. Thanks for sharing. The polish and colors are awesome but I would feel the same way about the cracking
Yeah, that's a bit disappointing, but not much I can do about it.
You have a wonderful assortment of the fluorite colors, my favorite is the rainbow. The brighter the colour and clearer they are, is in the difference of grade and price in fluorite. It can get very expensive for larger clearer pieces.
This wasn't very expensive, so I guess I got what I paid for. It was a good challenge for me.
Love fluorite...so pretty
You've hit on one of my all time favorites! TFS 💖🦅🦅
Great! I aim to please.
Wow what a difference magnificent looking awesome thank u
That's the fun of this hobby for me, seeing the change from rough to polished.
LOOKS LIKE YOU'VE AFEW PIECES OF AMETHYST IN THAT GORGEOUS BATCH MR.ROB 👍♥️ 😃🖐
No, that was all fluorite, but I do see how the purple ones look a bit like amethyst. Would you mind turning off your caps lock? It looks like you're yelling in all of your comments.
I can't wait until next week!
I used small seashell to tumble
I hang up to shine in the window
My were cracked to on arriving
When they are cracked in white crystal
I never tumble to a bright shine
You did a great job
I have a sphere, a rough chunk, an 8mm round bead necklace and a million chip beads and they all have fractures in them - i love that as it shows its natural beauty
Good to know. I guess it’s unavoidable.
I love flourite. I’ve tumbled quite a bit and tried everything to get that polish. I finally started doing a final buff with linen wheel on a Dremel with zam. Love to know how you did that!
When I figure out what I did, I might make a video showing the method. There sure wasn't much information on the Internet on how to tumble them.
These are amazing flourite!!. They dont have the deep purple-green, chevron stripes nature....but, oh my, their transparency is gorgeous!!!.
I like the colors a lot.
We’re all like fluorite. Beautiful with a few fractures.
Oh, that's deep.
Gorgeous!
Still really cool looking!
Just beautiful. @ 5:05 - if you flipped it upside down, looks like a Bob Ross painting with a snow capped mountains and one happy little tree to the far right.
😁 hey sorry, it's been a long day here lol
I wonder how Bob Ross would feel about that comparison.
@@MichiganRockslol I don't think he'd mind since he painted rocks into his landscapes.
@@Tomb13 Good point!
I think these are my favorite those are beautiful...
I love everything but the cracks.
I’m with you Rob, I don’t like all the cracks and fractures. Especially when you have invested a lot of time. The shine is still ‘award winning’ fabulous though 😀. I wonder, like a few others mentioned, if there is a big difference if using vibratory tumbler over rotary. I also saw that Kingsley North has some nice fluorite tumbling material available $8 per pound.
I tried it in both vibratory and rotary tumblers. I think I got this shine in a rotary, but I'll have to tumble the other half of my rocks to be sure.
I got this from The Rock Shed for $4.50 a pound. I probably bought five pounds, which brought the price down to $4.00. Pretty cheap rocks. therockshed.com/crushedrock1.html
In the tumbled fluorite, some of the fractures make them look in a way better. Beautiful clarity(beside the fractures) and color. Great vid bro.
Some of the fractures do, but others don't so much.
Thank you for the education..
You're welcome. Thanks for coming to class.
Looks like tumbled colored glass. Very pretty. But I'm like you ,I would like less cracks. Nice job on the polish. Thanks for showing us.
You're welcome, Davin.
I've been into bead work for about 30 years (my daughters got me into it kinda like your son getting you into rocks) and fluorite has always been one of my favorites to work with. Go to Fire Mountain website to see some great natural stone beads. Rarely does it have no fractures.
I've been to that site before, but I forgot what I bought there. I have the tools to do some jewelry making, but I don't do much of it.
Glad to be with you on a Tuesday
You can make some really nice jewelry with those.
Great video. Thank you.
I don't plan to make these into jewelry. Most was a little small for that.
You can't be anybody else, you are who you are!
Amazing!
I think you did a beautiful job! I have a few nice pieces of raw fluorite that are free of fractures, but a lot of the pieces I order are very fractured, and/or crumbly. I’m about to tumble my first ever batch of fluorite, and am planning to check it every day. Cross yer fingers!
Good luck, this took me a few tries and I can't remember for sure what I even did.
I love fluorite! I’m gonna try to tumble some, too
Good luck! I bought some more to try to remember how I did this. I know I tried a few things before I got it right.
So very cool !!! I noticed some of the pieces seem to have bands of color in them. I wonder if the cracks and fractures are due to the fact that they are pieces broken off of a larger rock. Possibly if they were pieces cut from a larger rock maybe they wouldn’t fracture. Just speculating 🤔. They almost look like colored glass. Thanks for sharing !!!
I think a lot of crushed rock has that problem. Some of these were pretty clearly sawn, but I don’t know what else was done to them. I think the biggest problem is that they seem to have natural cleavage planes where a lot of the breaking takes place.
I have to agree on the fractures being cool..I totally dig em..lol..gives the rocks some character frozen in time..
I sure wish I could see them that way.
I think the fractures make it more interesting 😄❤️
I’m happy you see them that way. I just can’t quite get past them.
I tried to tumble some [ wet ] but didn't get the shine that you have. Now I have them in the tumbler with ground corncob and cerium oxide to see if dry tumbling will help. Any other suggestions?
I honestly don't remember what I did. I know I tried the dry corncob method in a vibratory tumbler. I don't think that worked as well as I was hoping. I'll have to tumble the rest of them and see if I can figure out what I did. I really should have taken notes.
so cool floright is very cool
Beautiful 👍
The white ones remind me of some glacier ice I've seen, after it floats in water for awhile.
Very pretty very fragile.
That sounds cool. I don’t have a lot of glacier experience.
@@MichiganRocks i lived in Alaska for a couple years. Facinating place.
@@elizabethharttley4073 I have a friend who lives there, I'd love to visit sometime.
@@MichiganRocks
I recommend visiting and make it more than a week...js the place is huge.
The stripes are amazing!
I do like the stripes.
A big fan
I wonder if you could polish it out by hand via the cab machine...especially that one piece of rough that you showed that was multi colored and fairly flat. Just a thought
I should give that a try. I'm sure it can be done that way, but it would still have the cracks. I don't think I could get a much better shine on it.
I get rocks and crystals from rough rocks inc. and they are wonderful and low cost
I just did a Google search for that and came up with nothing. Did you mean "Rough Stone LLC"?
Oh gosh! I just ordered fluorite. And I just recently bought a tumbler that I haven’t used yet. Probably not a beginner choice. Oops 😬
I tumbled this after years of experience and still had a lot of trouble. These rocks were tumbled several times using different methods to get this result. I'd suggest that you get some agate, jasper, or other hard rock to start with. If you live in Michigan and can find some unakite on the beach, I think that's a good starter rock too.
Definitely try some other items out first. It's very fragile and if tumbled with other items it will likely brake into hardly anything. Please be careful.
💜💙💚💜💙💚OMG so amazing the colors are so vivid. I love them all. They have all my favorite colors ❤😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍💜💙💚💜💙💚💜💙💚
You love all the rocks I show!
@@MichiganRocks YES, because they are all so perfect and beautiful. 😍🥰😇💜💙💚💜💙💚
Reminds me of marbles that I fried when I was a kid
Someone else said that same thing, except baked, not fried.
What polish did you use on them? Ours look just a bit less glassy than yours. We had lots of fractures like yours, but the internal fractures did make vibrant rainbows which we ended up liking.
I used aluminum oxide polish from the Rock Shed.
Di por favor como es el procedimiento para voltearlas, que grano y que óxidos usaste, y los tiempos
No tomé notas sobre cómo caí estos. Planeo hacer más en el futuro y hacer un video que muestre cómo.
I feel like for these stones the fractures add so much life and character, it's a shame that makes it so much harder to tumble. They end up so pretty in the end. They remind me of baked marbles again, similar to another stone a while back that I can't remember.
I remember you mentioning baked marbles before. It might have been some sort of quartz that you compared them to. Quartz tend to have a lot of fractures too.
It’s a feature of the rock that’s what they do I’ve got pieces of them cracks in them and I bought them from the shop. You got good fluorite I’ve got cheaper fluorite and there’s a lot more cracks in mine
That's good to know. I haven't bought a lot of fluorite to know if this was good or bad.
Did you use the vibratory tumbler for the last couple of stages? I see fractures in crystals. The play of light often creates a prism.
I did not take good notes on how I did these. I remember trying a variety of things until I got it right. One of these days, I'll do some more and figure it out, then make a video on the process.
I’m about to tumble a batch of Florite in a NG Tumbler. Just wondering if the final stage should be polished with dry corn cob?
I can't remember exactly how I did these. I remember that I tried several different things. These were one of the most challenging rocks that I have tumbled.
@@MichiganRocks polishing one at a time would take forever. At least it would keep the cracking from happening.
Might sound silly. But I use airsoft BBs as a filler for my rocks with fractures and inclusions. Seems to really help keep them from banging into each other and breaking. Just don't get the biodegradable BBs...
That doesn't sound silly at all. I have plastic pellets that are basically the same thing. I'm sure I must have used them in at least some of the stages of this tumble.
I love fluorite
Its a very soft stone so good luck polishing it without cracks and pits, I have a pound of flurorite and it looks the same, cracks, breaks etc, very soft stone but pretty cool! Fluorite also comes in rainbow colors from some mines, but mostly it's blue,green,purple. I think your stones you did came out very nice! 😁
Yes, it's four on the Mohs scale. I don't think the softness and fractures are related though. Petoskey Stone is even softer and does not have an excessive number of cracks. It's that fluorite has natural cleavage planes all over the place. I'm not sure what the word for that trait is.
@@MichiganRocks Cleavage.... more specifically, octahedral cleavage. ;-)
@@captpaul8827 If only I could get them to break into perfect octohedrons. That would be really cool.
I love Rocks of all types!
Sure, but some types are a lot better than others.
You sure got a better shine than I've been able to! Did you use the Lot-O? I've got a specimen of Illinois Fluorite which is nice and solid with few if any fractures. Too expensive to get a batch for tumbling. I may try some day.....
I really don't remember what I did. I'l play around with the rest of my supply one of these days and figure it out again. Maybe I'll make a video when I do. I couldn't find any good information on tumbling this stuff on the Internet.
I like the fractures . They add more depth to the stone.
We have a similar stone in Derbyshire called Blue John , it is in a cavern and is meant to be the only place it can be found
I just looked it up. It is a form of fluorite. Looks a lot like amethyst. I can't believe people can make bowls out of rock like that. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_John_(mineral)
@@MichiganRocks the price of some of them unbelievable also, I have just found one for over £3,000
@@lorrets9775 I think I'll pass on that!
@@MichiganRocks me too
Does the un polished pieces glow too ?
Very beautiful btw.
Yes, they glow too.
Isn't fluorite a little on the soft side as minerals go? Were they more difficult to tumble or did you have to use a different method to tumble them?
They're 4 on the Mohs scale. They might have been the most difficult rock I've tumbled, and I don't remember exactly what I did to get these results. I remember trying a lot of different things.
I think the fractures give it character you know how some people they take those little fish things that they put at the bottom there a little glass colorful things and they actually fractured on purpose because fractures look awesome in stones
I don't know what you're referring to. Can you give me a link to the little fish things you're talking about?
Could you work with the fracture lines and make cubes?
I do think the fractures are natural cleavage planes. I don't know if they're at 90 degree angles thought. If they were, it sure wasn't obvious.
my guess is fluorite needs a lot of cushionings right on stage one like Amethyst except it's much softer?
I don't remember my exact method, but I'm sure I tried to cushion it all the way through. A lot of those cracks were already there, but I didn't want to add to them either.
Hope I get to see a reply from an expert on fluorite. One of those pictures in the stills you showed had interesting bands of green, purple, clear.
I hope so too. I’d love to get some higher grade material if it doesn’t cost a fortune.
Спасибо!
Здравствуйте, Евгения, первый раз увидела на этом канале комментарий на русском языке)
Привет из Перми)
Я рад, что вы двое нашли кого-то еще, с кем можно поговорить. Я получаю несколько русских комментариев каждый месяц.
@@MichiganRocks , извините, я не знала, недавно подписалась на Ваш канал.
@@Irina_Berezyuk Спасибо за подписку!
I love the imperfections in fluorite and quartz just as much as you enjoy rings and eyes! Should a stone this soft be put into a tumbler? I know it would be labor intensive, but I’d love to see you polish one of these stones by hand. The raw material you have looks like it is fractured in its raw state. I know next to nothing about fluorite. But I used to watch a show called The Prospectors. It seems to me that some of stones they collected were very clear with few inclusions. They were considered gem-quality material.
This certainly isn’t gem quality. Since it’s being sold as tumbling rock, it’s probably at the other end of the spectrum.
I’ll think about maybe polishing one fo these on my grinder next time.
Where did you order your fluorite please? I just got a tumbler and want to try some fluorite in there! 🙂
I got mine from The Rock Shed. I would discourage you from doing that as a beginner tumbler. I'd go with agate or jasper of some sort. This was one of the most difficult rocks I have ever tumbled and I had to try several things to get in right. Unfortunately, I don't remember exactly what I didi. rockshed.com
Thank you
I just got 1lb of fluoride on amazon, what grit & time was it, they look awesome 😊 💯 🙋♂️
I'm not sure how I did these, but I have some more and plan to do a video on it one of these days. I just need to figure out what I did. It wasn't my normal method.
@@MichiganRocks Thanks so much for the info, I probably wait & see what you do with them if that is not the normal tumbling, no rush at all, I don't what to ruin them 👍🏻👋
Thanks for your hard work....and sharing the results with all! Speaking of all, who is the clown that gave a "thumbs down?" Do they ever comment about what they did not like? Just sour grapes I imagine!
I get a few of those on every video. It might just be people who don't like this sort of comment trying to tell UA-cam to stop recommending it. They don't ever seem to leave comments about what they don't like. That is except for the first rock video I ever made. I threw the rocks I didn't want into the lake. That really upset some people. They spoke up loud and clear.
@@MichiganRocks Ha Ha, throwing rocks into the lake? Were they afraid of harming the lil' fishy? Or did they want to follow you and pick up your discards? LoL
@@jneihart2 Your timing is great. No kidding, the last comment I responded to before this one said, "Maybe that's why I couldn't find any Petoskey stones last time I visited Lake Michigan." Apparently if I toss them back into Lake Huron, it affects the rock picking in Lake Michigan. The funny thing is, no one criticized me for taking rocks home, just for leaving them in the lake.
Hey,I must have missed this episode...I absolutely LOVE fluorite!..it's extremely fun to work with on the cab, shaping them. I'd like to know how you tumbled them tho. There so soft and temperamental. What grit?..how long?
I've come across a few with extremely minimal fracturing, those I made into squares for making dice(in progress). If I can find the place I bought them from (several times), I'll forward it to you. They have supplied me with fantastic specimens. The ones you have there seem to be very fractured. Let me know any tips on tumbling,as I've only cabbed fluorite. Thanks!..those stones are wonderful!
I'd love to know where you got yours because the fractures in these drove me nuts. A lot of people commented on here that fractures like that are completely normal in fluorite.
I tumbled these quite a while ago and I don't remember exactly what I did. I know I tried several things before getting them to look this good. They were not easy to tumble.
@@MichiganRocks I will try and locate the lady I bought them from,.for some reason it's not showing up in my favorites or previous seller,..but I think I have a receipt around somewhere. I've bought from her a few times and the quality is pretty good. With fluorite your always going to have some fracturing. I fell in love with this stone yrs ago and have spent some serious money on some fabulous pieces from other countries. Pure fluorite, hexagonal, with ladders is very rare but very cool. .and expensive!..I want to say I paid like 10 or 11.00 a pound from this lady. I still have several pieces left if you'd like a sample piece before you spend more money..I'll see if I can get that info for you ASAP
@@manisteerocks7092 Thanks Wil.
Isn’t Flourite one of those rocks that fades if left in the sun? I might be confusing it with Tourmaline.
I don’t know. I have it safely tucked away inside a cabinet in the basement.
Where did you get the fluorite from?? In the Metaphysical Community, fractures sometimes makes angels, etc...in Crystals...I'm sure it's the same with fluorite....pretty phenomenal!
I got it from The Rock Shed.
@@MichiganRocks It's beautiful!
Your fluorite has the best polish I have ever seen. Please let us know your method if you can remember.
I have some more and intend to tumble it again and take notes this time.
@@MichiganRocks Thanks! Again, your videos have been invaluable in teaching us how to get great results.
Are you using long wave or short, some change depending on that
It's a 365 nm Convoy S2 with a filter. I think the filter just filters out natural light and lets only UV light through. I bought my light specifically for Yooperlites.
@@MichiganRocks there is a good website that list all rocks and minerals that glow, what colors they glow and whether to use long wave or shortwave and sometimes color is different
www.galleries.com/minerals/property/fluotabl.htm
Super informative
@@robertbradford3461 I knew there were different wavelengths that work for different minerals. I do have a cheaper light that I believe is 395 nm, but no other lights. I should give that cheap one a try.
@@captpaul8827 From that site, it looks like 365 nm is the best wavelength for fluorite.
Thanks for the content, I bought a pound of this on amazon and it seems to have darker color then the ones you are showing, just as many cracks. I thought you might have some insights into this rock. I watched a newbie with the Nat Geo, tumble her very first batch of rocks and she use the base rocks from Nat Geo and some fluorite. By the time she realized that the fluorite was getting worn down faster then the other rocks I think after step 2 or 3, they were pebbles. She also did not know how much faster the Nat Geo tumbler spins and wears down the rocks faster. Something I also took a while to learn. I just got some aluminum grit polish so I am adding some of the fluorite I have rough with the final rocks, I figure its so soft that even the polish stage is going to wear them down, If you are curious I can share my end results for the fluorite with you.
I don't remember exactly what I did to get these results, but I remember trying several things before I got it right. I wish I would have taken notes. One of these days, I need to do another batch and make a video about it.
@@MichiganRocks I put some chunks in with my latest batch with the 1,200 aluminum grit, I think I may have over loaded the tumbler, the little Nat Geo tumbler can handle more rocks then can fit in it, unless you get really heavy rocks maybe... The results from just trying to polish the Fluorite were positive. I took them out today to check on them after four days in an overfilled tumbler so while the rocks could move around they were by no means tumbling. But the fluorite were surprisingly worn down after just four days of polish. I put them back in with a less full tumbler for 4-5 days more plus I put in the largest nicest piece of fluorite that I got which is still rough. I think the rocks softness means that just polishing them will actually reduce them enough to round off the crystal, have you ever tried that with the fluorite? Have you tried polishing rough rocks with out doing the earlier steps?
@@baron8463 No, I think I have always done the early stages too. Wait, I did do a three day puddingstone tumble once that turned out ok. ua-cam.com/video/zgGKE8PzAMg/v-deo.html
Oh..and speaking of florecent..do yooperlites tumble well ?
Video coming very soon to answer that question. They’ll be out of the tumbler tomorrow. Video should be next week.
@@MichiganRocks cool beans..thank you..thats awesome..cant wait..👍
Second!
Noice!
Very nice l have necklaces from this stone
These would make nice necklaces if I had a piece that was big enough without fractures in it.
Que hermosos fluorite colores quiero me gusta collar todos?? buenas noches aaaaaaa luz color azul después cuando
Not polished & polished it’s beautiful.
Would florite be a good canidate for a vibratory polisher? It can be eye clean without the cracks. and naturally shaped like perfect cubes . if ceramic cushons dont stop the cracking, and the vibratory tumbler isn't a good option, grinding DOES work. It is how one facets stones and makes cabochons ( basically shiney domed half ovals) and florite is sometimes cut and cabbed.
One of the methods I tried was tumbling in my Lot-O with dry corn cob. I don't think that worked as well as what I did here. I don't remember exactly what I did, but I think I might know. I'm going to see if I can polish up the rest of my rough. Maybe I'll make a video about it someday.
I might try to polish one up on my cab machine too. I usually make my cabs bigger than what I'd be able to get out of one of these pieces. I think I'd need to order some larger chunks to make a decent cab.
@@MichiganRocks i think that cabbing is a fantastic idea. Its supposed to be pretty soft so start with a finer grit than normal or it will rip chunks out of the surface. If you get i to the more valuable materials the sizes start ot shrink alot. One carrot weight is .02 grams and thats the standard gemstone size. Comepaired to that you have some monsters! . you show a specific cracked example that has really amazing irridesent color acrossed the fracture. Maybe orient that at the bottom of a cab to see if it draws those colors up into the dome? It would probably be pretty spectacular looking ! I also bet that florite being SO nice and watery clear, would make for epic doublet lenses!. Like maybe a slice of dark colored yooperlite under a cab . it would probably carry the glow from the yooperlite under uv REALLYY WELL. Even with its purple color( does it have to be shortwave uv to light up? )
I am currently working on my first AAAA tanzanite purchase. Hoping to get a full ct. If not 1.1 to 1.3 ct...but ill see what my options are. About the vibratory tublers. They are origonally for brass cases for reloading/ handloading ammo. Maybe try lymans treated Walnut media ona small sample. The one issue i found is they seem to hold way more work material than they actually do. My old vibratory case cleaner held held 2.3 gallons of material until full. That is three hundred .223 rem/ 5.56x45mm nato cases( same external dimensions and 223 is safe in 5.56 but NOT the other way around do to chamber design, internal case design and far high pressures) how ever it was only meant to clean and polish one hundred .223rem cases or fifty five .308 win cases. It took 1/4 the time and the media lasted longer before breaking down to the point of needing replacement. I mention becuase its a common thing to unknowingly overload that sort of polishing machine. Because ifs dry tumbling media , you can. Add a fistfull of cotton balls in to add cushoning and its a very light abbrasive itself. As always test it on a small sample first, but maybe that will help .
Be well dude.
Its good to be back.
@@coreymerrill3257 I have never tried a doublet, I don't really do that much cabbing. That's an interesting idea to combine the Yooperlite with fluorite. Yooperlites look best under 365 nm light. The problem with making jewelry out of Yooperlites is that people aren't usually in UV light situations to make it actually look good. I can't imagine my wife carrying a UV flashlight in her purse to pull out to show off her necklace.
@@MichiganRocks that is a good point. Maybe ravers would be the propper market . they live under uv light .lol
@@coreymerrill3257 Not really a crowd I come in contact with.
I LOVE all of these Fluorite beauties! The gorgeous babies are naturally prone to form foils, which are exasperated by friction as well as heat. In their tumbling process, did the motion produce any heat in the barrel? Rotating, cyclic- on an axis could produce less crackly-foiling in the stones than a vibratory tumble/polish machine would. I don't recall if you mention which method you used here.
Another crackly foiling reason is the cleavage of the stones themselves... no, not *that* kind of cleavage- the cleaved angles of the crystals' formation. It wants to be angular, so it must be rebelling against you. I cannot think of any other reason. It's personal.
Haha.
Anyway- science and silliness aside... those are some rad rocks you got in the box!
I'd be thrilled to have any of them.
There's no heat generated in any of my tumblers. I think the natural cleavage in these rocks is the main problem.
Rob, Rob, Rob, I love your OCD brother but trust me they turned out great IMO. Do you think doing them in a vibratory tumbler using flexible/soft tile spacers would help stop the fracturing? I use those in some of my batches where the rock is fractured and it seems to take longer to get a polish (not much, maybe a day or two) but they do a great job providing cushion. Just a thought. If I had some I would try it but I don’t sooo....wait, I know someone that has some un-tumbled....you! :)
I think the fractures are mostly in the rock naturally. I've had several people comment backing that up. I don't really think there's much I could have done different than what I have done to make them much better. I'm happy with my part in this, I'm just not so happy with the material. Yes, I know I'm too fussy, but that also leads to some good results.
That’s an excellent tumbling job! The cleavage planes and cracks are perfectly normal. You could hammer them out, but would end up with mighty small pieces, lol. If you seek perfection, buy 10x what you need, and nip it down with tile nippers.
I know, I should just be happy with them the way they are. Does anyone really _need_ rocks?
They are sure pretty
Yes they are.
The shine is really good on those Rob. I'd be interested to know what your recipe was for these. Fluorite has 4 planes of perfect cleavage so Its easy to break in 4 different directions. I'm sure when you bought them the fractures were there. Any amount of tumbling action would surely create additional fractures easily. Did you use a 3lb barrel for stage 1? I'm wondering if a smaller 1lb barrel with higher RPM in stage 1 would reduce the amount of additional fractures. Then stages 2, 3 & 4 in the Lot-o.
I don't remember exactly what I did with these. I know I tried several methods. The first stage was definitely done in a three pound barrel. I think one pound barrels are the same diameter, so I don't think it would be any gentler. I would also think a lower RPM would be better than a higher, but I don't think it would matter much.
I know I tried doing these in a dry corn cob media in the Lot-O, but I don't think that was the way that got them looking this good. I'm pretty sure I ended up doing the whole process in a rotary tumbler. I'm going to run the rest of my rocks one of these days, and if I figure out what I did, I'll make a video on the process.