Cool Rock/Gemstone Thread

[Minty_Magic]

Is anyone here into rockhounding or picking up cool rocks? If so I thought I’d start a thread for us to show off our finds! I’m a real amateur, I just picked up the hobby a few months ago when I got a rock tumbler. I don’t know what rocks are what or anything like that, I just pick up things I think look cool!

Here are a few of my favorites from my first batch of “wild” rocks I tumbled! All of these were found in various locations around town. Most are from a campground I stayed at, but some are actually just regular old landscape rocks.

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Here’s another batch I have tumbling right now. These were all picked up at another campground. They’re in the final polishing stage now so hopefully they will be done soon!

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I’d love to see any cool rocks or gemstones you all have! They can be store bought or wild found, anything goes here!

[DracoKat]

Ive always wanted to try rock tumbling. the results looks so satisfying! However, I am concerned with the noise level of the machine and I have no place to put it that won't disturb anyone.
those rocks are so pretty! I used to have a rock collection when I was younger. I gave them to my niece since.

[BlackCurtains]

A thread for me!

Yes! I collected rocks as a child and still have some of them. I stopped in my 20s but picked it back up again later in the form of crystals and gemstones. I have some rough and polished stones too. I will have to take pics.

I've been looking into a rock tumbler myself. What did you get? I was looking on Amazon and they have a "kids" rock tumbler from The Smithsonian for a non ridiculous price. Others I looked up were too expensive, and then you have to take into account the grit and slick (am I using those terms correctly? )

Your rocks look really nice! Looks like you have some jasper there including some adventure jasper (the green ones)

[Ponybookworm]

My area is known for serpentine, & one thing which has always intrigued me is pretty rocks & gems. I have some small gems in the Dream Castle for my Princess Ponies!!!

[Minty_Magic]

Ive always wanted to try rock tumbling. the results looks so satisfying! However, I am concerned with the noise level of the machine and I have no place to put it that won't disturb anyone.
those rocks are so pretty! I used to have a rock collection when I was younger. I gave them to my niece since.

Thank you! The noise they make is definitely an issue. Luckily I have a shelf in my laundry room that seems to dampen the noise more or less. I can hear it in some areas of the house that share a wall with the laundry room, but mostly I don’t notice it running! That or it’s just become white noise at this point lol!

A thread for me!

Yes! I collected rocks as a child and still have some of them. I stopped in my 20s but picked it back up again later in the form of crystals and gemstones. I have some rough and polished stones too. I will have to take pics.

I've been looking into a rock tumbler myself. What did you get? I was looking on Amazon and they have a "kids" rock tumbler from The Smithsonian for a non ridiculous price. Others I looked up were too expensive, and then you have to take into account the grit and slick (am I using those terms correctly? )

Your rocks look really nice! Looks like you have some jasper there including some adventure jasper (the green ones)

Ohhh thanks for helping ID some of the rocks! I wondered if the red ones might be Jasper just based on the color, but I had no idea the green ones could be a type of Jasper too! That would make sense though, I think Jasper is supposed to be relatively common in my area.

This is the tumbler I got, I think it’s a knockoff of the Nat Geo one but I’ve been happy with it so far!
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0CLV773TF/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&th=1

To be perfectly honest I think any of the rotary tumblers would be sufficient. They all more or less do the same thing, the results are going to come down more to the grit you buy and the time you spend tumbling them. There’s a Youtuber called Michigan Rocks that has great tutorials on rock tumbling and that is where I learned the method I’ve been trying! I think the biggest factors are running the first stage multiple times over until the rocks are as smooth as you can get them and getting a good polish. Tbh none of the kits come with good grits or polishes, so that is definitely something worth investing in. I’ve been buying Polly Plastics for my grit and polish. I’ve found they seem to be good quality and a fairly reasonable price. It’s cheaper to buy in bulk of course, but I don’t have a place to store huge bags of the stuff.

My area is known for serpentine, & one thing which has always intrigued me is pretty rocks & gems. I have some small gems in the Dream Castle for my Princess Ponies!!!

I’ve seen some polished Serpentine, it’s a really pretty stone! I love the idea of using the gems in pony displays! I currently have all of my rocks in jars, but I like the idea of scattering some into my play set displays!

[Beldarna]

I have some crystals in my dragon shelf. I don't remember their names or their abilities though, I think it is for inner calm and stamina and stuff like that. I was into that when I was younger but it has fallen out of interest as I grew up. I also have a flint that I got from my 1-3rd grade teacher when she tought us about the stone age. That thing is still sharp.

[Leave a Whisper]

I've got a basket dull of them. I'll hafta get a pic sometime. My favorite gem of all time is watermelon tourmaline.

[Honeycomb]

Those are beautiful! What does a rock tumbler do?

[ChocolateStarfire]

I have so many rocks--I will be updating this post with pictures soon (I need to find an image hosting site, oof)!

It's awesome that you have a tumbler and yeah those things are so loud!

I used to cut open geodes at Knott's Berry Farm, gosh that was...a decade ago now! D: So I have a few geodes and a slice signed by Mayim Bialik from The Big Bang Theory.

I also have some dinosaur bone fragments, gifted to me during a couple of excursions over a decade ago.

I recently sorted mine into igneous, sed and metamorphics, because I have so many specimens! The tumbleds I keep for a vase with fake flowers, and this Halloween I gave some to my students, because I just have way too many! D:

Lots of minerals as well, my fave right now is a chonky amethyst with rutile inclusions and some hematite, too; it's in my Halloween Pony pic on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/p/Cz0HseeOaCN/?utm_source=ig_web_button_share_sheet&igshid=ODhhZWM5NmIwOQ==

Nice to chat with fellow rockhounds!

[Minty_Magic]

I love that so many of you share my fascination for rocks! Long time no post in this thread haha, but I ended up having a small disaster with my rock tumbler that threw me off track. I came back one night after a concert and thought my tumbler sounded off, but my ears were numb and a lot of thing sounded off so I ignored it and went to bed. When I woke up it still sounded off so I opened up the closet where I keep it and it had leaked. ALL OVER. There was sludge and grit just everywhere. Unfortunately that leak absolutely destroyed my rock tumbler and it stopped working.

Well I finally got another tumbler and got back on track! I got one with a slightly larger capacity, but I couldn’t quite afford a double barrel one like I really wanted. Here are a few of my select favorites from the batch I was working on last time.

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These 4 here might be my favorites so far - especially the funky brown one! I have no idea what it is, but I was shocked it took the polish so well! The texture of the original rock made me think it might not get too shiny.

This is another batch I just finished. These are actually all just landscape rocks from my grandma’s backyard. When I was a kid I had collected a bunch of rocks from her yard I thought were cool and put them in a bucket. She never dumped them back out after all these years, so I thought it was appropriate to tumble them! Most of them are pretty small since they were small to start with, but there are a few nice ones in there.

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Honeycomb, to answer your question the rock tumbler basically smooths out all the rough edges of rocks and makes them smooth and shiny! There are a couple different types that work in different ways, but mine is the more common rotary tumbler that basically just spins them around in a barrel! You add in some grit and water to each stage to smooth them out more nd more. The fun part is definitely Italy the first stage. When you first start to knock off those rough edges that’s when a lot of the neat little patterns and lines on the rocks start to show up!

[ChocolateStarfire]

So. Many. Rocks! Also oof to the tumbler breaking and leaking...ugh that must've been awful to deal with. D: Glad you got another one and I love the tumbled specimens!

[Lady Frostbite]

I'm not a big a fan as some people I know, and I sold a collection when unemployed, but I do like a precious rock or two! My absolute favourite is blue goldstone, and I pick up green ones on occasion (though I don't have any right now. I also like black obsidian/snowflake obsidian and black onyx. I do NOT like hematite and it doesn't like me!!! It gives me a TON of bad luck and I yeeted the stone when I realised the source of the bad vibes. I think the fact it was used to curse a baby in a TV series is the reason I associate it with that, plus it's just not for me.

I have some rose quartz stones in my memorial for my pets <3

There was a crystal shop that had a GORGEOUS piece of pale blue Aqua Aura but I couldn't afford it at the time and it was sold when I DID want to get it

[BlackCurtains]

Those stones are beautiful! Sorry about your tumbler though.

I keep meaning to take pics for this thread. I recently added two spheres to my collection, a tiger's eye and a sodalite.

[TheClassCalico]

You have a wonderful collection! I'm sorry to hear about your rock tumbler. I have a small collection somewhere, but I have no clue where the majority of them are. All I have around is a rough amethyst, which, unfortunately, has a unicorn sitting on top of it. I could possibly remove it, but I'm worried that I may do damage to the quartz in the process.

I personally favour rough ores and minerals over smooth ones; I am primarily interested in a more natural state, seeing precisely how they would appear in nature (or as close as possible). I certainly do like smooth gemstones, though—they are absolutely beautiful and far more pleasant to hold. It's just that I like ores and minerals more because they're fascinating little pieces of nature that just happen to often be very pretty, sort of similar to how one may see fossils, I suppose.

[Beldarna]

That red one is really popping!