Tumbling Rocks

I was given a Thumler Tumbler system - gifted by one of the most important people in my life - and I kinda put off processing some rocks because I knew it was going to be a long, arduous process. A process that was probably going to be trial and error, that would ruin several batches of rocks before I got it right, and one that could probably end up being expensive because of both using up media and the fact that I’d be using/ruining rocks I can’t just go get more of. But my benefactor was anxious and I knew it would make a good video series, so I finally decided to just bite the bullet and get on with it.

I read the instructions over and over before I got started. I went through and sorted all the rocks into 3 piles: specimens to set aside, agates to tumble, and other stuff to tumble and see what happens. I had an idea of what the texas agates would look like tumbled, I hadn’t really been able to identify the other rocks so I didn’t know what to expect but they seemed very jasper/agate-y so I thought I had a pretty good idea of those as well.

The first session went well. I lost a lot of material in stage 1 but not too many of the rocks got broken or cracked, so that was a good thing. Stage 2 just seemed to smooth off the edges. Stage 3 showed the most change, with the rocks all being significantly smaller than they had started out as, but were all smooth. Some of the inner beauty was starting to show through but they weren’t coming along as I’d planned. At stage 3, they should have been finished for everything except polish, so I was pretty concerned that they didn’t look like the showpieces I’d imagined. Very few were water-lined or banded. Some of the botryoidal parts were intact and accentuated but, for the most part, everything looked just like a smoother, smaller version of what I started with.

I got a few pro tips from a friend and began tumbling the rocks with soap and water for a few hours between stages and it helped get all the slurry out of the nooks and crannies. It helped the rocks look a lot more white which, for agates, they were already so white that it was a little shocking. But there were so many weird inclusions and spots that weren’t “features,” and they just weren’t the high-quality pieces I was hoping for.

The final polishing stage didn’t feel like it took a whole week and I probably could have done another week to make them even shinier, but I decided that it was fine to leave them the way they were after just 1 week. Once I knew they were dry, I filmed the final video with the final reveal and picked out a few to mail out.

I guess I was overall a little disappointed with the quality of the agates I found in Texas, as far as the polishing goes. I expected them to look way more like the ones I’ve seen online or in stores, but it’s just a difference in how they formed as to why they look so much different. I haven’t tried to tumble any of the ones from Arizona, so I can’t say that those will be any better; they look very similar on the outside but I have no idea what they’ll look like all tumbled up.

If I’d been able to collect any of the agates we found during our dino bone excursion, I probably would have ended up with much better tumbled specimens in the end. Those agates appeared much glassier to start with, more clear with mossy types of inclusions instead of the ruddy texture, milky appearance, with vug-type of inclusions throughout the rock.

I guess I will check the Arizona agates next to see if there’s anything suitable for tumbling, but I think most of them are already too small to process. I have a butt-ton of petrified wood that needs to go through the tumbler, and I look forward to seeing how all of that works out. It’s a lot of time to invest although there isn’t much work involved. It’s fun to see how the rocks change throughout the weeks. All in all, I think it was a worthy use of time and electricity, and I need to go through all of my boxes at this point and start pulling some rocks aside to throw into the barrels. Ideally, I’d have both going at once from here on out.

~ Angie