How to Polish Rocks

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By eHow Contributing Writer

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Make gems of ordinary looking rocks

Polished rocks are a beautiful addition to any rock collection. The process of polishing rocks involves using a finer and finer grit abrasive until the desired shape and smoothness is reached. Most rocks are polished using a rock tumbler and can take up to 6 weeks. Heed the following tips and unearth your own buried treasures from any pile of rocks.

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Difficulty: Moderate

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

Rock tumbler
Bulk rough rocks
Abrasive grits(silicon carbide): coarse (60/90 grit), medium/fine (120/220 grit)

Tumbler Polishing

Step 1

Purchase a rock tumbler and bulk rocks and stones at a hobby store or online (see Resources).
Step 2

Add rocks and coarse abrasive grit (this typically comes with hobby tumbling kits) to the tumbler and let polish for one week.
Step 3

Remove rocks from the tumbler and wash thoroughly.
Step 4

Put rocks back in tumbler with a medium grade abrasive for one week.
Step 5

Remove rocks from the tumbler and take out any pebbles or rocks that have sharp points.
Step 6

Prepolish rocks in tumbler for 10 days. Do final polishing for 2 weeks, remove and wash thoroughly. Spread out onto a towel to dry.

Tips & Warnings

Unlike polishing rocks by hand, with a rock tumbler you don't have to be quite as particular about the hardness of the rock you want to polish.
Gloves and safety glasses are recommended.

Resources

Comments

TGreenwood said

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on 11/3/2008 I have some rocks I picked up at Lake Powell. In normal dry conditions they are not so beautiful but when they are wet, they are the most colorful, beautiful things ever. How can I get them to keep that color? I don't want to change the shape or texture and they are quite big (some fist size or bigger). Can they be varnished? I am looking for an inexpensive way to keep them colorful without keeping them in water of course.

Thank you,
Tricia