We have started a new hobby – we are going to learn about rocks and how to polish them. Our Dad bought us a Rock Tumbler and we’ve collected rocks from our trips we go on. We are going to keep a log of our new project on the internet and keep it updated when we have our classes. It’s going to take about 4 to 5 weeks to polish the rocks.

 

 Our class started today, (March 24, 2005). Today Dad (he’s the teacher), taught us about the rocks we are using in the Rock Tumbler. Here is a picture of the rocks we are using.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here is Alicia studying the rocks

Jade

 

Jade come in all colors. Chinese people wore them as jewelry and it kept them healthy. We found our Jade at the beach near San Simeon. It is smooth and black.

 

Obsidian

 

Obsidian comes from lava reaching the water. It’s glassy and can be green to black. It has been used by ancient people for tools and cutting.

Agate

 

Agate forms from lava too. It forms in the cracks. Agate was used by ancient people for superstitious reasons, like making them stronger than their enemies.

Jasper

 

Jasper comes in many colors, our jasper is white. It is kind of like quartz. It has been used by people for 20,000 years. It was used as medicine and good luck.

 

Here’s a picture of our Dad teaching us about the rocks. This one was Jasper.

We got the idea of polishing rocks when we were at Big Sur last week. We love rocks and wanted to make our own polished rocks.

 

Here’s a picture of the Rock Tumbler. It will turn the rocks all day long. It is like what happens at the ocean with the waves and sand. Inside the round part are the rocks with water and black sand. The sand and water will make the rocks get really smooth and shiny.

 

Tomorrow we will check the rocks and let out the gas that is created from the turning. Then we will check it again the next day.  We are only letting the gas out when we check it. This is the first stage of polishing and it will run for about a week.

 

There are 4 stages before the rocks are polished completely. Brittany will take pictures with her digital camera of the rocks at each stage.

The rocks we are using are Jade, Obsidian, Agate and Jasper

Rock Update II

April 3, 2005

The rocks have been tumbling now for 10 days. We checked them the first few days to let the gas out. It was foamy and you couldn’t really see the rocks unless you took one out and cleaned it off. We’re really excited about opening the barrel to see what’s happened.

 

The Rock Tumbler is in our family room, it is always on. It sounds like the water is on or the washing machine. After awhile you get used to it. We like to touch it but Dad tells us not to because it can break the belt that turns the drum. He lets us touch it sometimes.

 

 

 

 

The stuff that comes out of the tumbler is called a slurry. It’s water, sand, grit and rock dust. Dad says we can’t pour it down the sink. It’s gray and feels like sandpaper between your fingers.  It’s really thick, kind of like gravy, but it’s gray.

The slurry is made up of the rock dust from being sanded by the grit.  After we were done touching it we had to pour out the slurry and the rocks through Mom’s strainer. Dad didn’t ask Mom if he could use it.

Then we rinsed the rocks off really good with water. It is important to get all the grit off the rocks.

 

After we cleaned the rocks and the tumbler, we brought them into the house to study.

 

The rocks got smaller and Dad said that it is ok to put some more rocks in this time as long as they are from the beach and already smooth. Beach rocks have already been smoothed by the waves and the sand. We can only do it this one time because the next tumbling process will make the rocks smoother than beach rocks.

 

We put in some small beach rocks that we collected at Big Sur last month.

Dad taught us about how some rocks are formed. Then we got to touch and feel all the different rocks.

 

Brittany took really good notes, Alicia decided to keep her notes in her head this time.

 

Then we put all the rocks back into the tumbler and poured in the fine grit. It is gray like the coarse grit we used last week.

After we poured in the fine grit we put water back into it, put the lid on and put it back on the turning machine. Alicia turned it on.

 

Now it will turn for another 7 days before Dad says we can look at the rocks again. We’ll see you in a week!

Some of the rocks broke into smaller pieces so now we have even more rocks. Some are really tiny too.

Links to:

  © 2005 kjgillespie.com All rights reserved. 

Rock Update III

April 10, 2005

Today we did the same thing we did last week; we washed the rocks off really good and dried them off. Then Dad took pictures of us holding our favorite rocks.

 

The rocks are really smooth now, they’ve been turning in the tumbler for 17 days straight. Today we put in what’s called pre-polish, and it is a really fine gray powder. Our rocks will tumble with the pre-polish for 7 days, then we have one more week to go!

 

The rocks are not shiny yet, only when they are wet. Dad says they will begin to get shiny soon.

 

We got some more small really small rocks from the big rocks chipping and a few of the rocks have gotten a lot smaller. Dad say that’s because it’s a softer rock.

Here are the rocks dried off. They look shiny when they’re wet. We put a few more beach rocks in last week so now we have a few more than what we started with, plus the ones that chipped off.

 

See you next week!

 

 

This is right before Alicia dropped the tumbler, which happened twice today. Ooooops……..it’s hard with skates on

 

Now we have to pour out the old slurry with the rocks into Mom’s spaghetti strainer.

 

Here’s a picture of that below……..

Rock Update IV

April 18, 2005

 

 

 

Today is Monday, we were too busy yesterday to do the rocks. So, today we did it after school with Dad.

 

Today Dad let us do our Rock Project with our skates on. First we took the tumbler outside where we could open it up. Here’s a picture of us, Brittany is eating a snack.

This is a good picture of us with our skates on too. It was hard not to get them muddy….

 

After we poured the slurry and rocks into the strainer, Alicia sprayed them off with the hose to get them really clean.

 

Then we brought them into the house to dry off.

 

Here’s a picture of us looking at the rocks after we’ve dried them off. They are getting shinier now but we haven’t put in the polish yet.

 

After we played with them for a bit we had to get them ready for their last tumble.

This is a picture of us holding the polish and these little white balls that will go in with it this time.

 

The little white balls are soft and will keep the rocks from scratching each other, The polish is a white powder, it’s like flour, really soft.

 

We poured our polish and little white balls into the tumbler, filled it with water and put it back on the machine.

Now we only have one more week to go. We can’t wait!!

Final Rock Update

 

 

We couldn’t wait to see what they looked like……

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We grabbed Mom’s strainer and went out to the backyard and poured out the slurry of polishing stuff and water.

 

This mixture is white because that is the color of the polishing powder. The polishing powder is Cerium Oxide, You can also use Aluminum Oxide or Tin Oxide, (Dad told us this part).

Don’t forget, we added a few rocks in week 2 and some rocks split into smaller pieces…….

Our Rock Project is completed and now we have our polished rocks on display in our family room.  When we go on vacation in June we are going to be collecting new rocks to polish. It was great fun and we can’t wait to do it again!

Love,

 

Brittany and Alicia

And here our the before and after shots.