I am so glad I'm not the only person who has buckets of random rocks that have no real purpose but get kept forever because each rock is special. It's a lifestyle.
I've got an old plastic peanut butter jar filled with raw agates I picked out of gravel pits when I worked as a truck driver hauling gravel in to a factory that made prefab reinforced concrete, some 30 odd years ago. As I was the only lady driver in the company, the guys I worked with started picking out any cool rocks they found for me as well. Never got a tumbler, and when I took my 'umble collection to a rock club to see if they'd tumble them for me, they sniffed at my collection and said it wouldn't be worth the time. This makes me want to get a tumbler myself and give it a go - I bet my little agates would shine up just fine if even this bunch of random rocks came out so pretty...
In my experience, people with funky hobbies are either gatekeeping turds or so excited to have a new hobby-buddy they'll drop everything to induct you into their flock. I'm sorry you ran into the former.
My biology professor always said "there's no such thing as a failed experiment, record everything that happens, you can always learn from it". That's definitely what happened here, i think we all learned a lot from this! I have no idea how i ended up here btw, i was randomly recommended this video. I love seeing people's hobbies and how interesting they are!
I do batches of random rocks for my girls and their friends. They spend so much time picking through for their favorites and trade them with their friends for hours. I set up my light table and give them magnifying glasses and lupes they can share
@Agate Ariel it really renewed my love of rocks. They don't care about rarity or value. They care about shiny and pretty. We get a type granite that's about 70% beautiful red crystals and our driveway is full of it. Once they're polished they're stunning and the neighborhood kids treat them like diamonds
I know nothing about rock tumbling but I do think it's cool how the process brought out a lot of bright colors and patterns you couldn't see before, low key makes me want to get a tumbler someday
We do random rocks a lot in our tumblers....our whole family are constantly picking up rocks to put in the tumblers to see how they turn out....those turned out good 👍
10:40. I really like how the basalt looks, even though it didn't come out the best I still really just love how it looks with that texture, it really compliments the dark color of the stone.
I'm 76, former Infantry Marine with 28 months in combat, college grad, design engineer, and am teaching my 9 year old granddaughter how to "Tumble Rocks", as I bought her a Rock Tumbler for her 10th birthday. I loved your video, I'll have granddaughter watch it with me today, then we'll follow your instructions. She is wildly excited and frankly so am I, but I'm more excited by her excitement then anything of my own making. But..., ..., I can't wait to see our end result together. Thanks so much for making this video!
The final product for me is kind of nostalgic, just cause it looks like the polished rocks you could get in the grab bins of so so so many gift shops across the country, at least when I was younger. Much to the annoyance of my dad since my brother and I ALWAYS had to get a bag of those random rocks, to the point that I still have a box of them in my nightstand XD I love it, and so glad I came across your video.
Finding your own rocks is great. I spent a couple months working in Spain and my girlfriend picked up tons of rocks on the beaches. We used a Mohs hardness kit and separated them by hardness before tumbling them. We ended up with fantastic results, and it was a lot more fun than just using rocks that we ordered.
I got a tumble-polisher when I was a kid and just dug stones out of the garden to feed it. We're on glacial till so there was a huge variety of gorgeous reds and browns from all parts north. I made pendants and bracelets from some, filled the dishes around plant pots with the rest. The tumbler's long gone but I never broke the habit of picking up random rocks :)
I moved not very far but far enough to get away from the glacial till...i loved seeing all the cool rocks in my backyard. Now I'm getting really into rocks and... I'm in swamp 😂
When I first started tumbling, I grabbed random rocks from our driveway and from the road side! It was a good way to practice and some came out really nice. I love your quartz piece, the red ones are kind of like jasper! They are also pretty!!! Fun project!
i grew up in the 60s tumbling found rocks with my grandpa, and i still have a few of them. i actually didn't even realise some people bought special rocks to tumble until my 20s! and i LOVE how yours turned out!
I think it was a success. I really like the random textures and colors. I'm always bringing small pretty rocks home to my wife that I find while walking my dog. Thanks for sharing.
I think this was a great experiment. They turned out a lot better than I thought they would. Wow, that slurry was crazy thick and muddy. I'm glad you did this. 👩🔬
@@AgateAriel Do the slurry have any application? Like, can you put it into a mold and cook it like potery to make a brick os something, for example? Or as some sort of cement/binder? Mix with clay, maybe?
All of my rocks are stuff I’ve picked up on walks or from the North Shore. I don’t think I’d just go grab a bunch of rocks and dirt off a road and tumble though. Thanks for sharing and thanks for helping us learn.
Maybe I’m basic, but I think they turned out pretty :) Im not sure what I would use them for, but I think they would look really pretty embedded in clay as a showcase of local geological colors and textures On that note, I’m reminded of a time around 2012, this great art store in St Paul called Wet Paint carried a really nice watercolor brand where some of the paints were actual crushed up pigments (ie: the amethyst was crush amethyst). The brand made a local paint for every state. Minnesota’s we’re crushed up clay pipes and it was a beautiful, warm, earthy brown. But anyway, fun video. Thank you for sharing :)
Good to see I'm not alone in grabbing random rocks to see what happens. So much satisfaction in the little triumphs. I love the hidden gems you found in there. More than a few looked great, but I would definitely vote for the creamy yellow one. 😉
Me and my dad did this when I was very young. It turned out very similarly. Then we got special rocks to tumble but honestly as a kid I liked the random ones from the neighborhood better!
Patience is something we all need a little bit of work on these days, right? I am in the process of purchasing one for my neice and this was a pleasant surprise
i think this experiment went well. you can tell from the first tumble which ones are basalt and which ones are quartz and etc. maybe you can pick out the ones that you know will look good and do that a couple times until you have enough to continue with. also honestly i love the satin finish on the basalt. it might not sparkle like the quartz but it feels so elegant.
I've tumbled a number of random rocks and, like you, found that some turn out way better than expected and others not so much. I really like the epidote.
The first thing I learned here was: Give random rocks a pre-wash to get rid of at least some of the dirt. The second lesson I learned was: As someone who lives on dirt roads and near a river, I should have a rock tumbler on my Christmas/birthday list.
I really liked the speckled rocks you were showing at the end of the video! I know some didn’t get as shiny but I’m sure they feel really neat! I would say what types of rocks they are but I’m still pretty new to the hobby! Love to always be learning more though!
IMHO the experiment was a success as even the very plain, dull finish rocks each had it's own personality. In some ways I prefer them to some of the garish highly polished rocks.
as someone who used to get polished rocks from tourist traps as a kid, i would always choose the wonky ones because they seemed to have their own interesting "story" 😂 i love how these randos turned out, i am partial to the red ones myself!
Just stumbled upon your channel. As a child I had a massive rock collection. I liked the milky cortz out of all the ones you tumbled. However my personal favorite would be amethyst .
My wife and I like picking up random pieces of gravel during our walks to admire their beauty. We practice catch and release, that is, we put the rocks back when we are done admiring them, especially if the site is serving a purpose like erosion control or a railroad bed. Glad to know others like randoms rocks too.
My toddler collects rocks, a trait in the family 😂. I think eventually he'll be tumbling his rocks to give them a gloss or shine. I believe the experiment was a success.
This reminds me of my mother, thanks for that. Due to various reasons and us kids supplying her with river rocks, she got a bit into rock tumbling. She didn't really get into the high polish end as I recall, mostly just cleaning them up to get the minerals to show. So you most definitely can tumble random rocks to reasonable success and I have the scent memory to prove it.
OH MY GOD NOOOO YOU WERE GIVING THEM AWAAAAY 😭😭😭 I thought they were beautiful from the start and throughout the video I got more and more amazed and when you showed the end result my first thought was “OH. MYGOD. I. NEEED THESE STONES THEY ARE SO GORGEOUS OMG I WOULD LOVE THEM AS ANY HIGH VALUABLE CRYSTAL/MINERAL THAT ROAM THE UNIVERSE!” 😭😭 And if I discovered you a year ago I could’ve competed in the battle of the comments to win that adoption, but since I discovered you less than 24 hours ago… that’s a ship that not only have sailed, it’s already perishing in its state of decomposition at the bottom of the ocean. That’s how much I am not on time ☹️😩 But anyway. I LOOVED this video, I always wanted to know what would happen, but I don’t have a tumbler (really want one tho, but I never looked into it tbh) and now I knoooww!! So thank you and I really believe this proves my opinion and pretty much a fundamental believe system that average rocks, who you find outside just anywhere, are at least just as cool, pretty, interesting and valuable rocks as each and every one of the minerals and crystals and all those in between! I’ve been collecting “average rocks” ever since I could pick up a rock, I always came home with my jacket heavy from all of the stones in the pockets and that never changed and the last 5-7 years I started to keep them so I must have well over 100 “average rocks” and since a couple of years.. I think around 3 years I started collecting “special stones” like crystals and minerals and so together I have loads and loads of stones and I really love the “special stones”, but I have some “average stones” that will make you amazed as if it’s a freaking opal inside a football sized geode (I know that’s not how it works, but I know you like your opals and everyone loves a nice geode 1+1 really). I have a pebble from this random pebbled sanitary compound at a gypsy camper site and that pebble is green(!) with bits of brown and it’s the prettiest stone I have ever seen. It’s my favourite of all. I pick every stone with feeling an energetic vibe with that stone and over the years I’ve found some super cool rare stones who are just “average stones”. I wish I could show a handful of the most special average stones I have, because they still baffle me when I look at them ❤️ (Not really sure why I jibber-jabbered my whole life story in relation to stones.. but long story short; the stones turned out amazing (I knew it!), I really have to look into getting a tumbler as well and I love “average stones” as if they’re worth more than gold and diamonds. (I actually think I love them more than gold and diamonds, even really most purest diamonds idc I love my pebbles) If you read til the end; thank yooouuuu! For putting up with this 2000 word essay I wrote when nobody asked 😬🥲🙏🏻❤️
What a great video!!! I've been tumbling for probly around 11yrs and 2yrs ago my kids brought a couple handfuls of 1/4in or less rocks from the driveway, I tumbled them, and was actually shocked at how shiny and awesome they looked haha Edit: I said 1/5 I stead if 1/4
I dont live in an area that has a lot of super awesome rocks. I can score the occasional agate. But I usually find chert. Even if they are pitted and fractured and just not spectacular, it's so much more fun to find a rock you're curious about and see what's going on underneath than to buy some jasper or petrified wood online for a sure thing. I guess thats why I have bowls full of dull, cracked and holey stones rather than glossy ones.😂
Living in the country, we have rocks keeping the drives and access areas free of weeds and grasses. I have tumbled selections from said rocks and have found some real beauties, including some semi-precious and precious stones. Who knows from where they come? But I make beautiful jewelry from them and do quite well when selling to the public.
Hey there! So, I'm living out my childhood wishes through our daughter. For Christmas, we purchased her a NatGeo Platinum tumbler. I've made no secrets in letting her and my wife know that part of this gift was for me too. She turned 10 the 1st week of Feb and she know has about 6 pounds of rocks to tumble. We did two loads and sorted out ones to move on and ones to redo in different steps and just today, we started the step 4 polish. We are so excited to see how they turn out! I like that you did this experiment as I was wondering how this would play out. Thank you for this. Also, We are planning a trip to Minnesota early fall to see my brother. I hear North Shore of Lake Superior is a great place to rockhound. Can you share any good places to spend a few hours as I'm planning a couple days of exploration?
I love that you can share your passion with your daughter! I can’t wait to do that one day with my own children. Minnesota is awesome for rockhounding! Any rocky lake shore you are bound to find some good rocks. Some of my favorite places are the rocky shores of Lake Superior, Grand Marais, and Moose Lake! Also if you do visit Lake Superior a great place to check out is black beach! It’s a beach with black sand and it’s really cool! Not many rocks to find there though. Hope that helps!
@@AgateAriel thank you for sharing this information. Black Beach sounds interesting. If we have time after hounding, we'll need to check that out. Have a great day and my daughter and I are looking forward to new vids
You want to go to the Franklin Mineral Show in Franklin NJ - not much to do around there, especially that time of year, but they have a lot of interesting rocks at the show, and if you sign up you can visit a quarry where they mine franklinite, a special fluorescent mineral found nowhere else. (It doesn't look like much when it's not under black light.)
As someone who has been collecting random rocks for the past 5+ years, this is extremely encouraging to me! I was gifted a tumbler last Christmas and I am only now researching to finally tumble my EXTENSIVE rock collection. It ranges from obsidian, agate, petrified wood, quartz, and many more random rocks I find in gravel pits and job sites. Thank you for this!! I got excited just seeing the end result seeing all the beautiful patterns, colors, and shapes of just some random rocks :D Edit: I would say the experiment is a success!
I really like the ones at 11:13 and especially 11:18. Great experiment though, you ought to do an experiment like this but with a bag or bucket of landscaping rocks.
Thanks for doing this video. I always thought about doing this. Being new to tumbling I find all rocks fascinating and unique. So I don't have a favorite because everything is new and pretty 😄.
I just happened across your channel and love this experiment. I have a rock tumbler given to me by my father years ago (he taught me to love rocks), but I've never used it, thinking it would be complicated. Beyond your fun experiment, you've given me the desire to actually tumble something. I was fortunate enough to inherit a vast collection of interesting rocks from an elderly rockhound friend of my father's - including buckets of things like rose quartz, garnet, amethyst, and snowflake obsidian - so I'm sure I have lots to play with. Thanks for inspiring me! 😊
I want to watch you tumble that entire bucket that would be cool and then color coordinate them and see what all a five pound bucket yields. Makes me want a five pound bucket of rocks. I’ve been preparing to get my first rock tumbler soon and I’m sooo excited!!
I have been picking up rocks since I was 5 years old. I have three brothers but I was the only one with rocks in my pockets. I often wonder what my poor mother did with them all,lol. I LOVE rocks, they’re fascinating geographic artifacts for me. I’m not certain that I have a favorite, they’re all favorites for one reason or another.
🤣🤣🤣 my folks live in Lejeune and when I visit them, my mom and I go to Onslow Beach. She never fails to ask if we are police calling allllll the rocks on the beach. Lol
I tumble rocks that initially were purchased as landscape materials. I did get a lot of pretty finished rocks that I am using to make jewelry including jasper, carnelian, and many quartz. Also they are often smooth enough to skip the first grit tumble. I use a dremel tool to smooth out imperfections and sand to a nice polish.
I've only tumbled random rocks. Well, I may choose which rocks I think will be interesting. I've used random sand as grit. I used to have a collection of brass baskets with various sizes of mesh. So I'd put sand through that to get different grits. I loved the results. It's great cheap fun.
I love your videos. I thought I would thank some of my favourite UA-camrs. I'm an armchair rockhound. I can't actually go myself because a stroke has left me partially disabled and affected my balance, but I do enjoy it vicariously through you and others.
Excellent, this process with the little grabble rocks is something that many people like me was wondering but that we never did, so you gave us that chance to see. Thank you!!
Ooohhh there's so many to choose from that I'd consider a "favorite"... maybe 🤔 🤔🤔 Hagstones? Or corals. I'm **really** good at finding both of those when I'm out picking. But the druzy Coral fossils are always my fav kinds of finds 😊
Big success! The stones' internal beauty really isn't visible in unpolished bits of random, dirty stones, but once the sharp edges, the dirt, and the microbes inhabiting those stones are emulsified and rinsed away, their geologic beauty becomes apparent.
Another successful video. Always going the extra mile to do what no one else will. i.e. like the time you put all the grits and polish in one cycle just to see and actually they didn't come out that bad lol.
The final product looks a lot like the rocks I find in the river which... is really not at all surprising since the river basically tumbles random rocks.
Very instructive. I know now not to expect wonders. I am about to buy a tumbler and this video tells alot about that not all "stones" can be shining "jewels"!
That was part of the fun for me...Find cool random rocks and tumble them...see how they turn out. I've been out there with buckets and a screen for days digging and sifting. Found some nice gemstones, too. It really is an easy, fun, and rewarding little hobby.
I'm so glad you made this video. I've never done any rock tumbling, and probably won't, but I love that you took so much time to do this and put it all together for us!!
I am new to rock tumbling but have had a blast learning!!! I did random rocks from our driveway and a river bank and I found a couple emeralds and some green jasper. Might not be much to some but I have found some beautiful rocks to display
I havent really been into rocks i'm more of a "flip a rock to find a bug" person but I have always wondered this exact thing. Always wanted a tumbler but never got around to getting one Edit: Thank you for making this video. This question had been hanging around my mind for almost 15 years. Now I know!
That epidote was pretty cool. I like the difference of the high polish with the satin look. My favorite rocks right now are Flower stones I find in my area.
These random tumbled rocks would be lovely scattered over bare soil in potted plants! I like using rocks in my container gardens to help keep the water from evaporating too quickly.
@AgateAriel perfect! I still love your uploads Ariel!! I've been a tumbler for a decade now and I love it! I really do enjoy your content too, its awesome, and my kids love it too!!!
Funny enough, I really love that basalt. I also like basalt quite a bit as-is, especially columnar basalt with it's natural geometric shapes. So I might be biased
Thanks to Jeopardy everyone likes to correct pronunciation. We all know what she was talking about. For example, I could say "SiliCON not siliCONE " is not a sentence and be perfectly correct.
@@mrcryptozoic817 The thing is, silicon is the element and silicone is the long chain compound formed with silicon as the backbone. Chemistry-wise, they are very different.
Love finding social media people from my state! Haven't started tumbling yet, but plan to start soon. I always assumed that at least some people use random rocks they find. Excited to see how they turn out!
the idea of seeing what happens when you tumble random gravel is funny to me on the sole basis that my older sister had a rock tumbler growing up and we had a gravel driveway, so thats just what wed tumble
Glad I found your channel. I’ve collected rocks for so many years and have always wanted to get into polishing them. I think my favorite might be that smaller black one you showed towards the end, with the white lines throughout!
When I was a toddler and up, my parents would tumble random rocks I gave them. They'd let me keep giving them ones I found pretty, until it was full. Then I'd watch them set it up in the kitchen, and for a week+ the rumble of the tumbler would brrrr in the kitchen, and I would watch the little red barrel spin and slosh once in awhile in anticipation. When the day would come to open it up, i'd help them take out the rocks and clean them... and pick out my favorites. They'd have me pick out a mommy, and daddy rock for them every time too and they'd keep their own little collection. There was some cool looking ones if I can remember correctly. I think we had to panic move on a budget out of that house, so I doubt the rocks came with us if I remember correctly. I don't recall the rock legacy moving houses with us so yeah... but I am sure they're in that house's yard somewhere... with their little history in them.. unless the new house owner did major yard reconstruction, then they're probably scattered around the world or in some sort of dump site lol...
There ya go 😊. Also all the other reasons 😉. Great watching, I'm learning. Been pounding the cascades from border down to cal. For 50 years and I wish now I'd been paying more attention to the shiny Rock's along the way. There's a few things I think I need to look at again if I can get There's!🙂🙂 Running about 25 pounds of rollers in tumblers More Rock's!!! Hahaha..You know! Never coveted anything in my life until I looked into a polished agate and realized the significance of time and the ramifications of such. A pleasure seeing you smile Mrs Ariel
I am so glad I'm not the only person who has buckets of random rocks that have no real purpose but get kept forever because each rock is special. It's a lifestyle.
Haha oh 100% 🤣
Definitely not the only one. I have several years worth of rocks to tumble. Never know what's going to turn out in the end.
I feel ya. I can't resist picking up a rock that looks cool.
@GloFreak That's me since I was s child lol😂. Everyone just thinks it's weird. I end. Decorate with these rocks lol 😂
It really is for me.
I've got an old plastic peanut butter jar filled with raw agates I picked out of gravel pits when I worked as a truck driver hauling gravel in to a factory that made prefab reinforced concrete, some 30 odd years ago. As I was the only lady driver in the company, the guys I worked with started picking out any cool rocks they found for me as well. Never got a tumbler, and when I took my 'umble collection to a rock club to see if they'd tumble them for me, they sniffed at my collection and said it wouldn't be worth the time. This makes me want to get a tumbler myself and give it a go - I bet my little agates would shine up just fine if even this bunch of random rocks came out so pretty...
Absolutely!! I’m sorry you had that kind of reaction-and you definitely should polish them! I bet they would turn out beautiful!
In my experience, people with funky hobbies are either gatekeeping turds or so excited to have a new hobby-buddy they'll drop everything to induct you into their flock.
I'm sorry you ran into the former.
You should do it. I bet you got some good agates. I’d love to see the raw rocks you have in the peanut butter jar. Get a tumbler!
I don’t know how high quality they are but I know harbor freight sells a tumbler that is pretty affordable. Just my two cents.
Do it!
My biology professor always said "there's no such thing as a failed experiment, record everything that happens, you can always learn from it". That's definitely what happened here, i think we all learned a lot from this! I have no idea how i ended up here btw, i was randomly recommended this video. I love seeing people's hobbies and how interesting they are!
Well I’m glad you are here!
I do batches of random rocks for my girls and their friends. They spend so much time picking through for their favorites and trade them with their friends for hours. I set up my light table and give them magnifying glasses and lupes they can share
Oh that is awesome! I hope to do that one day!
@Agate Ariel it really renewed my love of rocks. They don't care about rarity or value. They care about shiny and pretty. We get a type granite that's about 70% beautiful red crystals and our driveway is full of it. Once they're polished they're stunning and the neighborhood kids treat them like diamonds
@@boulderboyv10 Pikes Peak red? That stuff makes a pretty tumbled stone. Made a few paperweights from it!
@Mel Hawk it's a local granite (alberta rocky mountains) as far as I can tell
@@boulderboyv10 nice! For whatever reason, the Rockies seem to produce some truly pretty red granite!
I know nothing about rock tumbling but I do think it's cool how the process brought out a lot of bright colors and patterns you couldn't see before, low key makes me want to get a tumbler someday
Right! It definitely brings out their beauty! You definitely should! Tumbling is so fun!
How about today?
@@johnrobertd748 broke
@@sophisticatedPJs I knew nothing of rock tumbling until I tried with a garage sale Tumblr
We do random rocks a lot in our tumblers....our whole family are constantly picking up rocks to put in the tumblers to see how they turn out....those turned out good 👍
It can definitely be fun trying out different rocks in the tumbler-and some can really surprise you!
10:40. I really like how the basalt looks, even though it didn't come out the best I still really just love how it looks with that texture, it really compliments the dark color of the stone.
Right I agree actually! The texture does look pretty cool!
I am impressed by your commitment to rock tumbling as well as mint chocolate chip ice cream
🤣🤣🤣
😂😂😂 love this
I'm 76, former Infantry Marine with 28 months in combat, college grad, design engineer, and am teaching my 9 year old granddaughter how to "Tumble Rocks", as I bought her a Rock Tumbler for her 10th birthday. I loved your video, I'll have granddaughter watch it with me today, then we'll follow your instructions. She is wildly excited and frankly so am I, but I'm more excited by her excitement then anything of my own making. But..., ..., I can't wait to see our end result together. Thanks so much for making this video!
The final product for me is kind of nostalgic, just cause it looks like the polished rocks you could get in the grab bins of so so so many gift shops across the country, at least when I was younger. Much to the annoyance of my dad since my brother and I ALWAYS had to get a bag of those random rocks, to the point that I still have a box of them in my nightstand XD I love it, and so glad I came across your video.
Oh right!! Those gift shop rocks have a very fond place in my heart for sure!!
I’m 30 and I still have my shiny rocks from the natural history museum.
Finding your own rocks is great. I spent a couple months working in Spain and my girlfriend picked up tons of rocks on the beaches. We used a Mohs hardness kit and separated them by hardness before tumbling them. We ended up with fantastic results, and it was a lot more fun than just using rocks that we ordered.
That’s awesome! Glad you had a good result!
I feel like these would make really cool additions to aquariums.
That's what I thought too! I've been watching videos of people making their own aquariums and these would be lovely!
I got a tumble-polisher when I was a kid and just dug stones out of the garden to feed it. We're on glacial till so there was a huge variety of gorgeous reds and browns from all parts north. I made pendants and bracelets from some, filled the dishes around plant pots with the rest. The tumbler's long gone but I never broke the habit of picking up random rocks :)
Yes!! I love stories like that!
I moved not very far but far enough to get away from the glacial till...i loved seeing all the cool rocks in my backyard. Now I'm getting really into rocks and... I'm in swamp 😂
When I first started tumbling, I grabbed random rocks from our driveway and from the road side! It was a good way to practice and some came out really nice. I love your quartz piece, the red ones are kind of like jasper! They are also pretty!!! Fun project!
Thank you! Yes it’s always so exciting getting a new tumbler and testing different pieces!
i grew up in the 60s tumbling found rocks with my grandpa, and i still have a few of them.
i actually didn't even realise some people bought special rocks to tumble until my 20s!
and i LOVE how yours turned out!
Oh that’s so awesome! I love the connection you have with your grandpa 😊
First time I have heard of buying rocks
I did the same with my grampa!!
I think it was a success. I really like the random textures and colors. I'm always bringing small pretty rocks home to my wife that I find while walking my dog. Thanks for sharing.
That’s awesome! I was pleasantly surprised at the results!
I think this was a great experiment. They turned out a lot better than I thought they would. Wow, that slurry was crazy thick and muddy. I'm glad you did this. 👩🔬
Right! I was so surprised how thick the slurry remained throughout!
@@AgateAriel Do the slurry have any application? Like, can you put it into a mold and cook it like potery to make a brick os something, for example? Or as some sort of cement/binder? Mix with clay, maybe?
@@Archos777 I’m not sure actually! I’ve never tried it!
@@Archos777As a potter, I would be tempted to try it!
Yup, it was a lot of fun. Random rocks give a random polish. You never know until you try. Now you know. Thanks for taking us along on the journey.
Definitely! 😊
All of my rocks are stuff I’ve picked up on walks or from the North Shore. I don’t think I’d just go grab a bunch of rocks and dirt off a road and tumble though. Thanks for sharing and thanks for helping us learn.
Of course!
I pick up rocks and penny's. I'm going to try tumbling with my grandson. We're going to use some of the rocks I've picked up along the way.
Maybe I’m basic, but I think they turned out pretty :)
Im not sure what I would use them for, but I think they would look really pretty embedded in clay as a showcase of local geological colors and textures
On that note, I’m reminded of a time around 2012, this great art store in St Paul called Wet Paint carried a really nice watercolor brand where some of the paints were actual crushed up pigments (ie: the amethyst was crush amethyst). The brand made a local paint for every state. Minnesota’s we’re crushed up clay pipes and it was a beautiful, warm, earthy brown.
But anyway, fun video. Thank you for sharing :)
Good to see I'm not alone in grabbing random rocks to see what happens. So much satisfaction in the little triumphs.
I love the hidden gems you found in there. More than a few looked great, but I would definitely vote for the creamy yellow one. 😉
Right! It’s so satisfying to see how beautiful some become!
Me and my dad did this when I was very young. It turned out very similarly. Then we got special rocks to tumble but honestly as a kid I liked the random ones from the neighborhood better!
Bought my kid a tumbler kit for Christmas one year, didn't realize you had to keep it running for weeks 😂
Haha it does take a while that’s for sure!
Patience is something we all need a little bit of work on these days, right?
I am in the process of purchasing one for my neice and this was a pleasant surprise
@@TrishHalterman I prayed for patience and God told me to wait 😂
@@nunyabusiness3920 i needed that laugh, ty 😂
Same here. It was noisy, even out in the garage. Used only once.
i think this experiment went well. you can tell from the first tumble which ones are basalt and which ones are quartz and etc. maybe you can pick out the ones that you know will look good and do that a couple times until you have enough to continue with. also honestly i love the satin finish on the basalt. it might not sparkle like the quartz but it feels so elegant.
It’s the little imperfections that make a stone unique. I like the one with little green/blue pock marks in it.
Yes!! That one is awesome!
Love these! I’m from Washington county missouri and we have a lot of calcite and quartz in the area. My personal favorite is red jasper!
Jaspers are so awesome!! Greta to tumble too!
I've tumbled a number of random rocks and, like you, found that some turn out way better than expected and others not so much. I really like the epidote.
Right! The cool little clear knob on the epidote was so unique!
The first thing I learned here was:
Give random rocks a pre-wash to get rid of at least some of the dirt.
The second lesson I learned was:
As someone who lives on dirt roads and near a river, I should have a rock tumbler on my Christmas/birthday list.
I really liked the speckled rocks you were showing at the end of the video! I know some didn’t get as shiny but I’m sure they feel really neat! I would say what types of rocks they are but I’m still pretty new to the hobby! Love to always be learning more though!
Thanks for sharing! Yes they did feel pretty cool!
IMHO the experiment was a success as even the very plain, dull finish rocks each had it's own personality. In some ways I prefer them to some of the garish highly polished rocks.
I would never have guessed the wnd result was just random rocks that had been tumbled. They all looked cool in their own way.
They turned out so pretty. Shows why you never judge the outside because something amazing is just beneath.
as someone who used to get polished rocks from tourist traps as a kid, i would always choose the wonky ones because they seemed to have their own interesting "story" 😂 i love how these randos turned out, i am partial to the red ones myself!
I’m just now discovering that rock tumbling is even a thing, but I love these. The colors are so pretty!
Just stumbled upon your channel. As a child I had a massive rock collection. I liked the milky cortz out of all the ones you tumbled. However my personal favorite would be amethyst .
Welcome aboard! Rocks are so awesome!
My wife and I like picking up random pieces of gravel during our walks to admire their beauty. We practice catch and release, that is, we put the rocks back when we are done admiring them, especially if the site is serving a purpose like erosion control or a railroad bed. Glad to know others like randoms rocks too.
My toddler collects rocks, a trait in the family 😂. I think eventually he'll be tumbling his rocks to give them a gloss or shine. I believe the experiment was a success.
That's a beautiful mix of colors and patterns, it could be a great decoration for an aquarium or a potted plant.
Right!! That’s a great idea!
This reminds me of my mother, thanks for that.
Due to various reasons and us kids supplying her with river rocks, she got a bit into rock tumbling. She didn't really get into the high polish end as I recall, mostly just cleaning them up to get the minerals to show.
So you most definitely can tumble random rocks to reasonable success and I have the scent memory to prove it.
That’s so awesome! Thank you for sharing!
OH MY GOD NOOOO YOU WERE GIVING THEM AWAAAAY 😭😭😭 I thought they were beautiful from the start and throughout the video I got more and more amazed and when you showed the end result my first thought was “OH. MYGOD. I. NEEED THESE STONES THEY ARE SO GORGEOUS OMG I WOULD LOVE THEM AS ANY HIGH VALUABLE CRYSTAL/MINERAL THAT ROAM THE UNIVERSE!” 😭😭
And if I discovered you a year ago I could’ve competed in the battle of the comments to win that adoption, but since I discovered you less than 24 hours ago… that’s a ship that not only have sailed, it’s already perishing in its state of decomposition at the bottom of the ocean.
That’s how much I am not on time ☹️😩
But anyway. I LOOVED this video, I always wanted to know what would happen, but I don’t have a tumbler (really want one tho, but I never looked into it tbh) and now I knoooww!! So thank you and I really believe this proves my opinion and pretty much a fundamental believe system that average rocks, who you find outside just anywhere, are at least just as cool, pretty, interesting and valuable rocks as each and every one of the minerals and crystals and all those in between!
I’ve been collecting “average rocks” ever since I could pick up a rock, I always came home with my jacket heavy from all of the stones in the pockets and that never changed and the last 5-7 years I started to keep them so I must have well over 100 “average rocks” and since a couple of years.. I think around 3 years I started collecting “special stones” like crystals and minerals and so together I have loads and loads of stones and I really love the “special stones”, but I have some “average stones” that will make you amazed as if it’s a freaking opal inside a football sized geode (I know that’s not how it works, but I know you like your opals and everyone loves a nice geode 1+1 really).
I have a pebble from this random pebbled sanitary compound at a gypsy camper site and that pebble is green(!) with bits of brown and it’s the prettiest stone I have ever seen. It’s my favourite of all. I pick every stone with feeling an energetic vibe with that stone and over the years I’ve found some super cool rare stones who are just “average stones”. I wish I could show a handful of the most special average stones I have, because they still baffle me when I look at them ❤️
(Not really sure why I jibber-jabbered my whole life story in relation to stones.. but long story short; the stones turned out amazing (I knew it!), I really have to look into getting a tumbler as well and I love “average stones” as if they’re worth more than gold and diamonds. (I actually think I love them more than gold and diamonds, even really most purest diamonds idc I love my pebbles)
If you read til the end; thank yooouuuu! For putting up with this 2000 word essay I wrote when nobody asked 😬🥲🙏🏻❤️
What a great video!!! I've been tumbling for probly around 11yrs and 2yrs ago my kids brought a couple handfuls of 1/4in or less rocks from the driveway, I tumbled them, and was actually shocked at how shiny and awesome they looked haha
Edit: I said 1/5 I stead if 1/4
Oh that is awesome! Sometimes you can get good ones that way!
I dont live in an area that has a lot of super awesome rocks. I can score the occasional agate. But I usually find chert. Even if they are pitted and fractured and just not spectacular, it's so much more fun to find a rock you're curious about and see what's going on underneath than to buy some jasper or petrified wood online for a sure thing. I guess thats why I have bowls full of dull, cracked and holey stones rather than glossy ones.😂
Living in the country, we have rocks keeping the drives and access areas free of weeds and grasses. I have tumbled selections from said rocks and have found some real beauties, including some semi-precious and precious stones. Who knows from where they come? But I make beautiful jewelry from them and do quite well when selling to the public.
Hey there! So, I'm living out my childhood wishes through our daughter. For Christmas, we purchased her a NatGeo Platinum tumbler. I've made no secrets in letting her and my wife know that part of this gift was for me too. She turned 10 the 1st week of Feb and she know has about 6 pounds of rocks to tumble. We did two loads and sorted out ones to move on and ones to redo in different steps and just today, we started the step 4 polish. We are so excited to see how they turn out! I like that you did this experiment as I was wondering how this would play out. Thank you for this. Also, We are planning a trip to Minnesota early fall to see my brother. I hear North Shore of Lake Superior is a great place to rockhound. Can you share any good places to spend a few hours as I'm planning a couple days of exploration?
I love that you can share your passion with your daughter! I can’t wait to do that one day with my own children.
Minnesota is awesome for rockhounding! Any rocky lake shore you are bound to find some good rocks. Some of my favorite places are the rocky shores of Lake Superior, Grand Marais, and Moose Lake! Also if you do visit Lake Superior a great place to check out is black beach! It’s a beach with black sand and it’s really cool! Not many rocks to find there though. Hope that helps!
@@AgateAriel thank you for sharing this information. Black Beach sounds interesting. If we have time after hounding, we'll need to check that out. Have a great day and my daughter and I are looking forward to new vids
Oh, and btw, all of them. Lol! Especially the multi-colored ones.
You want to go to the Franklin Mineral Show in Franklin NJ - not much to do around there, especially that time of year, but they have a lot of interesting rocks at the show, and if you sign up you can visit a quarry where they mine franklinite, a special fluorescent mineral found nowhere else. (It doesn't look like much when it's not under black light.)
I actually really like how these turned out
I was super impressed how they looked after the first tumble.
As someone who has been collecting random rocks for the past 5+ years, this is extremely encouraging to me! I was gifted a tumbler last Christmas and I am only now researching to finally tumble my EXTENSIVE rock collection. It ranges from obsidian, agate, petrified wood, quartz, and many more random rocks I find in gravel pits and job sites. Thank you for this!! I got excited just seeing the end result seeing all the beautiful patterns, colors, and shapes of just some random rocks :D Edit: I would say the experiment is a success!
I really like the ones at 11:13 and especially 11:18. Great experiment though, you ought to do an experiment like this but with a bag or bucket of landscaping rocks.
Oh great idea!
It’s 3am I don’t know why I’m watching this since I don’t collect or tumble rocks or anything of the sort but I thoroughly enjoyed the video.
Not bad at all for random, turned out pretty nice, showing you can find decent stuff pretty much anywhere thanks.
Absolutely! There are great rocks everywhere! 😊
Oh boy, after the first step when she says "there are no real stunners" I was already absolutely enamoured with every single one
Thanks for doing this video. I always thought about doing this. Being new to tumbling I find all rocks fascinating and unique. So I don't have a favorite because everything is new and pretty 😄.
That’s awesome! I’m glad you enjoyed it 😊
I just happened across your channel and love this experiment. I have a rock tumbler given to me by my father years ago (he taught me to love rocks), but I've never used it, thinking it would be complicated. Beyond your fun experiment, you've given me the desire to actually tumble something. I was fortunate enough to inherit a vast collection of interesting rocks from an elderly rockhound friend of my father's - including buckets of things like rose quartz, garnet, amethyst, and snowflake obsidian - so I'm sure I have lots to play with. Thanks for inspiring me! 😊
I want to watch you tumble that entire bucket that would be cool and then color coordinate them and see what all a five pound bucket yields. Makes me want a five pound bucket of rocks. I’ve been preparing to get my first rock tumbler soon and I’m sooo excited!!
Oh that would be cool! Definitely would take a LOT of grit though! Haha
UA-cam just recommended this video out of nowhere and this sure is gonna be my new fascination!
They all look pretty good, imo. I prefer to tumble glass but now I wanna try this.
Oh and I want to try tumbling glass!
This is almost every persons first batch of rocks, which is why they get discouraged and give up.
I have been picking up rocks since I was 5 years old. I have three brothers but I was the only one with rocks in my pockets. I often wonder what my poor mother did with them all,lol. I LOVE rocks, they’re fascinating geographic artifacts for me. I’m not certain that I have a favorite, they’re all favorites for one reason or another.
So true! Love that it’s a life long hobby!
Hey Sherri, I just saw your user name and wanted to say Semper Fi to another WM!
@@JuleahStrickland Semper Fi Sister! Picking up rocks makes sense to us, lol.
🤣🤣🤣 my folks live in Lejeune and when I visit them, my mom and I go to Onslow Beach. She never fails to ask if we are police calling allllll the rocks on the beach. Lol
I tumble rocks that initially were purchased as landscape materials. I did get a lot of pretty finished rocks that I am using to make jewelry including jasper, carnelian, and many quartz. Also they are often smooth enough to skip the first grit tumble. I use a dremel tool to smooth out imperfections and sand to a nice polish.
Loved this!!! This is exactly the kinda stuff I wanna do with a rock tumbler!
I love that UA-cam can be a home for nerds that love things like rocks. How wholesome.
Her: a couple of these might have some potential
Me: I LOVE EVERY ROCK EVER I LOVE THEM ALL!!!
I've only tumbled random rocks. Well, I may choose which rocks I think will be interesting. I've used random sand as grit. I used to have a collection of brass baskets with various sizes of mesh. So I'd put sand through that to get different grits.
I loved the results. It's great cheap fun.
I love trying the random rock to see what happens! Love that epidote too!
Right! It was super cool!
Without a set image in your mind when making art, it is impossible to fail.
Oh good point!
These would be gorgeous in a lot of crafts or in aquaria/terraria.
The experiment was awesome! We learned, so I count it as a success.
“Research is thousands of no’s and that one amazing EUREKA!”
I love your videos. I thought I would thank some of my favourite UA-camrs. I'm an armchair rockhound. I can't actually go myself because a stroke has left me partially disabled and affected my balance, but I do enjoy it vicariously through you and others.
Wow thank you so much! I’m glad you can come along on our adventures!
Excellent, this process with the little grabble rocks is something that many people like me was wondering but that we never did, so you gave us that chance to see. Thank you!!
That “stone” color of the sludge upon opening the container is Really beautiful.
It’s so cool the colors you see sometimes in the slurry!
"Hon, the neighbor is stealing cups of our gravel again." *Sips coffee* ☕
Hahah 100% 🤣
Ooohhh there's so many to choose from that I'd consider a "favorite"... maybe 🤔 🤔🤔 Hagstones? Or corals. I'm **really** good at finding both of those when I'm out picking. But the druzy Coral fossils are always my fav kinds of finds 😊
Good choices!
Big success! The stones' internal beauty really isn't visible in unpolished bits of random, dirty stones, but once the sharp edges, the dirt, and the microbes inhabiting those stones are emulsified and rinsed away, their geologic beauty becomes apparent.
So true!
Another successful video. Always going the extra mile to do what no one else will.
i.e. like the time you put all the grits and polish in one cycle just to see and actually they didn't come out that bad lol.
Oh well thank you-I’m glad you liked it!
They turned out very pretty in my opinion just perfect for rock art .
The final product looks a lot like the rocks I find in the river which... is really not at all surprising since the river basically tumbles random rocks.
Right!! Very true! 😊
Very instructive. I know now not to expect wonders. I am about to buy a tumbler and this video tells alot about that not all "stones" can be shining "jewels"!
This has taught me I can indeed tumble random rocks, just don't put the dirt and teeny tiny rocks in the barrel 😂
Haha exactly 🤣
I thought they All turned out well each Rock is different and unique
How did your family handle the cold last week?
I liked the random rock tumble.
Did well! How about you?
That was part of the fun for me...Find cool random rocks and tumble them...see how they turn out.
I've been out there with buckets and a screen for days digging and sifting. Found some nice gemstones, too.
It really is an easy, fun, and rewarding little hobby.
ewwie gewies...lol...i love your positivity!!! thanks for sharing the experiment, Ariel!
Haha of course! 😊🙌
Those were gorgeous! They would make some beautiful jewelry with their organic shapes
You managed to make me watch the entire video, I'd call it a success. 😂
This is the best compliment I can hear! 😎
I'm so glad you made this video. I've never done any rock tumbling, and probably won't, but I love that you took so much time to do this and put it all together for us!!
Glad you enjoyed it!
Success! They're all unique.
I am new to rock tumbling but have had a blast learning!!! I did random rocks from our driveway and a river bank and I found a couple emeralds and some green jasper. Might not be much to some but I have found some beautiful rocks to display
I havent really been into rocks i'm more of a "flip a rock to find a bug" person but I have always wondered this exact thing.
Always wanted a tumbler but never got around to getting one
Edit: Thank you for making this video. This question had been hanging around my mind for almost 15 years. Now I know!
That’s awesome! Glad I could help 😊
That epidote was pretty cool. I like the difference of the high polish with the satin look. My favorite rocks right now are Flower stones I find in my area.
Yes! Sometimes the satin look does turn out pretty cool!
These random tumbled rocks would be lovely scattered over bare soil in potted plants! I like using rocks in my container gardens to help keep the water from evaporating too quickly.
Haha aw man...NO BORAX until state 3 at least....it just a waste of borax is all, ya it helps throughout but it's not needed till stage 3
You’re right! The clip with the borax was from a couple months ago before I learned that 😊
@AgateAriel perfect! I still love your uploads Ariel!! I've been a tumbler for a decade now and I love it! I really do enjoy your content too, its awesome, and my kids love it too!!!
@@koreyhayden1368 that’s awesome thank you so much!
Funny enough, I really love that basalt. I also like basalt quite a bit as-is, especially columnar basalt with it's natural geometric shapes. So I might be biased
SiliCON not siliCONE 🤣
Oh for real?! Haha I’ve always said it like that 🤣
Thanks to Jeopardy everyone likes to correct pronunciation. We all know what she was talking about.
For example, I could say "SiliCON not siliCONE " is not a sentence and be perfectly correct.
@@mrcryptozoic817 The thing is, silicon is the element and silicone is the long chain compound formed with silicon as the backbone. Chemistry-wise, they are very different.
Love finding social media people from my state! Haven't started tumbling yet, but plan to start soon. I always assumed that at least some people use random rocks they find. Excited to see how they turn out!
the idea of seeing what happens when you tumble random gravel is funny to me on the sole basis that my older sister had a rock tumbler growing up and we had a gravel driveway, so thats just what wed tumble
How can any rock be a fail? All rocks are awesome in their own way!
Glad I found your channel. I’ve collected rocks for so many years and have always wanted to get into polishing them. I think my favorite might be that smaller black one you showed towards the end, with the white lines throughout!
When I was a toddler and up, my parents would tumble random rocks I gave them. They'd let me keep giving them ones I found pretty, until it was full.
Then I'd watch them set it up in the kitchen, and for a week+ the rumble of the tumbler would brrrr in the kitchen, and I would watch the little red barrel spin and slosh once in awhile in anticipation.
When the day would come to open it up, i'd help them take out the rocks and clean them... and pick out my favorites.
They'd have me pick out a mommy, and daddy rock for them every time too and they'd keep their own little collection.
There was some cool looking ones if I can remember correctly.
I think we had to panic move on a budget out of that house, so I doubt the rocks came with us if I remember correctly. I don't recall the rock legacy moving houses with us so yeah... but I am sure they're in that house's yard somewhere... with their little history in them.. unless the new house owner did major yard reconstruction, then they're probably scattered around the world or in some sort of dump site lol...
I love that they are little treasures that maybe someday someone new can find and treasure! 😊
There ya go 😊.
Also all the other reasons 😉.
Great watching, I'm learning.
Been pounding the cascades from border down to cal. For 50 years and I wish now I'd been paying more attention to the shiny Rock's along the way.
There's a few things I think I need to look at again if I can get There's!🙂🙂
Running about 25 pounds of rollers in tumblers
More Rock's!!! Hahaha..You know!
Never coveted anything in my life until I looked into a polished agate and realized the significance of time and the ramifications of such.
A pleasure seeing you smile Mrs Ariel
I didn't know it took so many weeks to polish rocks. It makes me appreciate the polished rocks I have more. My 3 year old son loves playing with them.