Rockwerks Lapidary Forum

Alright, I have one major question and one that is, well, probably major as well, Lol. Firstly, What are some good household abrasives that you can use for sanding/tumbling? Grit is expensive and My boyfriend and I have little money to spare. What would be my best option? Same goes for polishing. I heard you could polish with news print. Is that true?? If not, what is the best thing to polish with? I don't want to use Jewelers rouge, because it stains the stone, so that takes away one of our options... And for the other major question(s). What the heck are these?!?

Fixed the pictures!!!

Hi rockhoundchick,
The best I can tell the first two rocks are called Quartzite. Quartzite is generally any quartz rock with itty bitty crystals that form a mass, or massive quartz.
As far as household abrasives, I don't really know any, silicon carbide is what most grit is made out of, it can get expensive. You may try getting some 80 grit silicon carbide, and if you let that run for "3-4 months" the grit will break down while tumbling and in essence become finer grit. Most grits you change every couple weeks, but if you just use 80 grit and let it run, after 3-4 months it will have broken down enough, that the rocks will be ready for polish. It is a slower way but can save a lot of money. Hope that helps. As far as polish, I use cerium oxide mostly, it is fairly cheap, and if you dry out the polish slurry, you can reuse the polish. Just be sure to remove any foreign matter you see in the polish. You can sand with wet/dry sandpaper but it is an arm-strong and slower way, but will work. Newspaper would be a good burnisher, but don't think it would polish too good. Burnish is the stage after polish, basically buffing.
Good questions,
TTYS
KOR
Dan

Now that you mention it we do have a lot of quartz, orthoquartzite and composite sedimentary stone in this area but very little in the way of igneous or metamorphic formations. I honestly can't remember finding chunks of igneous stone any larger than my palm around our areas. Either here or around her place where the three stones were found. I'm not kidding when I say we can find layered orthoquartzite in our own lawns.
At least I'm pretty sure they are orthoquartzite and not metamorphic quartzite.

Mike

I forgot to mention the 3rd photo. It looks as though it is agatized coral, or Potesky stone, (which is a form of fossilized coral)
KOR
Dan

thats what they look like to me also.

Thanks for the help guys!! Much appreciated. I also want to build my own tumbler. Any suggestions? I have this site: http://www.miim.com/thebside/tumbler/index.html