It’s painful to go through your freshly tumbled rocks and hold your breath when you see a great one and then inspect for problems. Sadly, some of my best-looking pieces have suffered from undercutting during the rock tumbling process.
Along Lower Mainland river basins I find a lot of what I assume is petrified wood, with the odd piece from the ocean. Some look perfectly like wood and are very striking, but many look quite dull and are harder to positively identify. But tumbling stones can bring out the beauty in them.
My Thumler UV10 Rock Tumbler has seen the light of day and I’ve completed the second phase (of at least four) of rock tumbling.
I woke up early yesterday with only a few hours of sleep. It’s summer in British Columbia and the sun’s up before 6am and it’s hot not long after, so I decided to make the most of the morning and go down to my favourite local beach for some rockhounding.
My wheels of industry are cranking – both my Lortone rotary rock tumblers and my Thumler vibratory rock tumbler are set and going to work on some of my BC rocks.
Assisted by her inherent luckiness, my girlfriend found an incredible rock while we were kayaking on Vancouver Island yesterday.
Finding rocks is the first Christmas, and then taking them out of your rock tumbler is the second.
Either my mind is retroactively making up a nice story or I really have had a rockhounding “Spidey sense” before a good find.
I got out to my favourite local beach on Vancouver Island today in Nanoose Bay. It’s my favourite because of its privacy and bounty of great rocks, like our local jasper Dallasite and attractive porphyry Flowerstone.
