My batch of Dallasite and other beach stones from Vancouver Island is now 75% of the way finished, with just one more session in my vibratory rock tumbler to go.
I think there were not enough rocks in this Dallasite batch, as the action in the tumbler was slow and not ideal. Still, the outcome was all right on most of the stones. I put them in pre-polish for two days.
I posted the progress of my first batch of Dallasite before here. These stones have made it through coarse grit in the rotary tumbler, fine grit in the vibratory tumbler, pre-polish in the vibratory tumbler and now all they need is the final polish run in my vibe.
A few of the tumbled Dallasite stones after pre-polish.
Along the way, I’ve lost stones at every step due to undercutting. I don’t think I had my Thumler vibe tumbler full of enough stones for the pre-polish step, as I had removed some that undercut during the fine grit step. Action in the tumbler was not ideal and the stones were not moving around as fast as I would have liked. I might have to get more pre-polished stones before I can finish this batch in the Thumler.
Another shot of tumbled stones through pre-polish.
Closeup of some of the Dallasite.
My favourite piece of Dallasite. She’s coming along well and is showing a colourful, deep almost stained glass effect in the black seams.
I can’t wait to finish this batch, but as I said, I might have to for a bit. I almost want to buy another vibratory tumbler to speed things up. This hobby’s really getting me!