Rock Tumbling

If you are interested in my rock tumbling batches, check them out here: Tumbling Batches

Rocks & Minerals to Collect

Igneous Rocks

  • granite → Speckled rock of quartz, feldspar, and mica. Polishes well in smaller-grained pieces.
  • basalt → Dark, fine-grained volcanic rock. Often dull after tumbling but smooth.
  • feldspar → Found within granite and unakite. Pink, white, or green crystals can take a satin polish.
  • quartz → Grey, white, or translucent. A classic tumbling stone with excellent shine.

Metamorphic Rocks

  • gneiss → Banded cousin of granite. Tumbling can highlight its wavy layers.
  • unakite → A mix of green epidote, pink feldspar, and quartz. One of the most striking Lake Ontario tumbling stones.
  • epidote → Green mineral usually seen within unakite. Satin polish with rich colour.
  • marble → Crystalline metamorphosed limestone. Softer (Mohs 3), so requires special care.

Sedimentary Rocks

  • conglomerate → Pebble-rich stone with quartz and other clasts. Polishes into unique patterned stones.
  • breccia → Similar to conglomerate but with sharp, angular fragments.
  • sandstone → Often too soft for tumbling, but quartz-rich varieties can smooth nicely.
  • Petrified Wood (rare) → Ancient fossilized wood replaced with silica. Can polish beautifully if found.

Microcrystalline quartz Varieties

  • agate → Banded, translucent quartz. Rare but possible along Lake Ontario. Excellent polish.
  • notes/rockhounding/rocks/minerals/jasper → Opaque red, brown, or yellow quartz. Durable and great for tumbling.
  • Chert / Flint → Hard, smooth cryptocrystalline quartz, often grey or brown. Takes a glossy finish.

Equipment for Rock Tumbling

  • Basic Tools: Bucket, sieve, gloves, and sturdy shoes for shoreline hunting.
  • Tumbler Setup: Rotary or vibratory tumbler, grit stages (coarse, medium, fine, polish).
  • Additional Supplies: Plastic pellets for cushioning softer stones, dedicated polish for quartz-based rocks.

Rock Size
Collect stones between 1–5 cm (½ inch to 2 inches) for best tumbling results. Avoid heavily fractured pieces.

Tumbling Tips

  1. Sort by Hardness → Don’t tumble soft marble with hard quartz. Keep similar hardnesses together.
  2. Use Stages Properly → Each grit stage (coarse, medium, fine, polish) should run for at least a week.
  3. Check Frequently → Remove cracked or undercut stones before advancing stages.
  4. Finish Strong → quartz, notes/rockhounding/rocks/minerals/jasper, and agate will take a glass-like polish. feldspar-rich rocks (like granite) may have a softer sheen.

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Here are all the notes in this garden, along with their links, visualized as a graph.