Rock Tumbling Basics! A Guide for Tumbling Agates and Jasper! 

Thank you so much! That truly means a lot! 😊

I agree with you so much. Thanks for taking the time to do this video

Very glad to hear that I could help! 😊

Thank you so much! I'm very glad to hear that you liked it! I bet they come out looking great! Crater of diamonds agate is some awesome stuff!

I agree completely! It can get confusing when you do some research and see how many different ways there are to go about tumbling, this is just what I have found to work best for me through a lot of trial and error! I hope this helps at all, and I'm very happy to hear that you enjoyed! 😊

Glad to help! And thank you so much for watching! 😊

This is a great video. I want to start doing this with my kids . Can you recommend a kit for us to do this? Thank you👍🏼

I am SO sorry for not seeing your comment sooner! I was not notified for some reason. The lortone 33b is a fantastic model! You are pretty much sureto get a great quality machine with any lortone tumbler, but the 33b is a wonderful model to start with! As for sourcing tumbling rough, I would absolutely recommend the Rock shed in South Dakota! They have an outstanding selection, ship extremely fast, and have very good prices! I am unfamiliar with Kansas geology but I would be more than happy to see what I can sleuth up for you! 😊

I use my trusty lortone. They are a little bit more expensive but they are amazingly reliable. I have burnt out many tumblers before getting my lortone and my only regret was not getting one sooner. Mine has been running every day for 3 years straight and still runs like it's brand new!😄

Of course!😄 the extremely super secret fifth step is 48 hours tumbling in soap😄 it REAAALLY helps bring up their shine😄

Great question! From my experience, I've found that it depends on what hardness range you are running. If you're running harder Stones like quartz, which is generally around 7, you will a higher tolerance with mixing, so you can easily get away with mixing hardnesses of 6-8. Whereas if the batch is softer, for example around 5 or lower, you will have less wiggle room as far as how much the hard Stones will affect the softer Stones and only have about a range of 1 on the hardness scale, so between 5 and 6. So theoretically, there should be no problem with running Lapis in a batch of apatite, but I would not put anything harder than the Lapis in the batch. I hope that makes sense and was any help!

@@TheoKellison That did help, thanks!

I do not know why I didn't get a notification for your comment but I am so sorry that I did not see it sooner! Yes, you add the pellets when you move from fine grit to pre polish, and then every step after!

It is often referred to as a burnishing step. After the stones come out of step 4 they are technically polished, but the will still have a microscopic texture. This texture holds onto the polish powder and dilutes the overall shine because it is basically still dirty. The fifth step is to allow the soap the truly penetrate the stone and clean all compound off of any surface of the stone. So in short, the soap step is really the Rock tumbling equivalent of putting your Stones into a dishwasher to make them sparkly clean. Hope this helps! 😊