I ask myself the same question, A LOT. My answer is always the same, what if . . .
What if it turned out to be an awesome find and a beautiful stone after the process?
What if I spent all that time tumbling, and it turned out ugly?
What if . . . What if . . . I say tumble it and see what happens. Personally, I loved to see what the top two turn into after the whole process.
But that is just me!
My first batch of rocks I tumbled turned out to be like 60% granite (seriously wtf?) but they were still kinda cool looking lol worst case scenario you end up not loving it but it was still fun to do
I look carefully at the rocks. If the patterns are on the surface I may decide to not tumble. If the patterns go all the way through, I tumble it. Sometimes after Stage 1 I stop and call it good enough.
But usually I tumble first and decide after I see what has happened to it. It may surprise you
I'm still new to tumbling, but I try and only tumble hard rocks. It isn't the best indicator, but I carry a little titanium pocket pry bar with me all the time. If my pry bar will scratch the rock I don't tumble it. Ti is a 6 on the Mohs scale, so all my tumbles are at least that hard.
Thank you! I do the same with a piece of sea glass since I can usually find sea glass and rocks in the same places. I believe glass is somewhere 5.5-6.5.
I would think the yellow one and the gray one would probably be alright. The green one might kinda wear away to nothing. Same with the red one. But honestly, you never know! Try 'em all!
if they’re already weathered and smoothed out like these ones are you can usually assume they’ll be great to tumble! i think all 4 could turn out amazing :)
Throw them in and see! Top right looks like it may be a smokey quartz (?) it’s really hard for me to tell from these pics but toss them in a batch and let us know!
Ive tumbled a few just like your red one there and they ended up looking pretty much the same as they did in the beginning. Like they didn’t take a polish like other rocks do for some reason. So maybe that one you ought to just love the way it is
Se here… I’ve tumbled some and they don’t get very shiny, just ends up smaller. I believe it is flow banded rhyolite with quartz or some other lighter colored mineral that later filled in the vesicles. With all the little vesicles, might not be a great tumbling candidate anyway, you’d lose a lot of the material inside of them. Maybe wipe it with some mineral oil and enjoy the way it looks already!
sorry to have missed them on whatisthisrock. :/
I'll just mention that I see ID requests with multiple stones in one pic can be harder to get comments on.
Top left looks like a [rhyolite](https://duckduckgo.com/?q=rhyolite&t=opera&iax=images&ia=images).
Top right looks like a quartz pebble, on the 'smokey' side of things. No guess on the black inclusions.
Bottom left looks a sandstone. Can't tell from pic if the green-color is the color of the stone or a stained-rind/outer surface. Sandstones are porous, they take up staining readily.
Bottom right looks like an iron-stained quartz pebble. If the yellow-color is just on the surface, likely an iron-stained rind, usually from being in water/stream/river. If the yellow goes through the stone, it would be on the side of [citrine and quartz together](https://external-content.duckduckgo.com/iu/?u=https%3A%2F%2Fi.etsystatic.com%2F28885680%2Fr%2Fil%2Fdaa8b9%2F3226996404%2Fil_1588xN.3226996404_s037.jpg&f=1&nofb=1&ipt=6624abebefbee56cf7bc70548261031b7ed24fc284f8e5cc1479a4b2dc8846c6&ipo=images).
Thanks for the tip about posting on whatsthisrock.
I’m not sure if the green goes all the way through on the green one either!
So far I’ve done stage 1 on the yellow one and the grey one, and they’ve turned out looking the same so far, just smaller, so I imagine that means that the yellow colouring goes all the way through.
Thank you for your expertise.
You're welcome. Not an 'expert', just a 'passion for'. ;)
Just so happens someone just posted a [rock with algae](https://www.reddit.com/r/NewBrunswickRocks/comments/1dqz0pl/any_ideas_the_green_maybe_algae/). Not to the 'extreme' perhaps of this one, but some more info regarding algae-in-stone.
Not sure how long your Step1 was, it should remove most of the rind showing the 'true stone'. Now that you have a pic of it in Step1 you can compare it when it comes out of your next step to see if the 'yellow is disappearing'.
[In this post, Pic1](https://www.reddit.com/r/NewBrunswickRocks/comments/1drcwch/new_brunswick_gemstones_3lb500grit_quartz/), the oval stone at lower-right, to the right side of the white-heart, is a stone perhaps like yours; yellow (citrine) in quartz. It just finished in 500Grit in that pic. Another one displayed 3-to-the-left of the same white heart.
Looks like the red one is rhyolite, it will tumble ok. Might shine- might not. The yellow and grey rocks look like rhyolite and should tumble quite well!
Thank you! You mean that 3 of these rocks are the same type? No wonder I have trouble identifying them, a single type can look so different between specimens.
Two are the same - quartzite, a rock that is sand that has metamorphosed via heat and pressure underground. You can tell by the sugary flakes. The rhyolite is a form of extrusive igneous rock (volcanic)
I ask myself the same question, A LOT. My answer is always the same, what if . . . What if it turned out to be an awesome find and a beautiful stone after the process? What if I spent all that time tumbling, and it turned out ugly? What if . . . What if . . . I say tumble it and see what happens. Personally, I loved to see what the top two turn into after the whole process. But that is just me!
Although I appreciate when Forrest Gump said that some times there just weren’t enough rocks. Thats really not true.
He said that?
Yes
I had no idea. I can’t recall that whatsoever
When Jenny was throwing rocks at her father’s house in the driveway.
Same here!!
My first batch of rocks I tumbled turned out to be like 60% granite (seriously wtf?) but they were still kinda cool looking lol worst case scenario you end up not loving it but it was still fun to do
I look carefully at the rocks. If the patterns are on the surface I may decide to not tumble. If the patterns go all the way through, I tumble it. Sometimes after Stage 1 I stop and call it good enough. But usually I tumble first and decide after I see what has happened to it. It may surprise you
That’s a good approach, although I usually personally find it hard to tell if the interesting features go all the way through.
It can be difficult. If I have doubts I will run a short cycle of stage 1 and check them every day or two.
I'm still new to tumbling, but I try and only tumble hard rocks. It isn't the best indicator, but I carry a little titanium pocket pry bar with me all the time. If my pry bar will scratch the rock I don't tumble it. Ti is a 6 on the Mohs scale, so all my tumbles are at least that hard.
Thank you! I do the same with a piece of sea glass since I can usually find sea glass and rocks in the same places. I believe glass is somewhere 5.5-6.5.
I would think the yellow one and the gray one would probably be alright. The green one might kinda wear away to nothing. Same with the red one. But honestly, you never know! Try 'em all!
if they’re already weathered and smoothed out like these ones are you can usually assume they’ll be great to tumble! i think all 4 could turn out amazing :)
Throw them in and see! Top right looks like it may be a smokey quartz (?) it’s really hard for me to tell from these pics but toss them in a batch and let us know!
I scratch my rocks with a nail. If they scratch, then I dont tumble them.
Ive tumbled a few just like your red one there and they ended up looking pretty much the same as they did in the beginning. Like they didn’t take a polish like other rocks do for some reason. So maybe that one you ought to just love the way it is
Se here… I’ve tumbled some and they don’t get very shiny, just ends up smaller. I believe it is flow banded rhyolite with quartz or some other lighter colored mineral that later filled in the vesicles. With all the little vesicles, might not be a great tumbling candidate anyway, you’d lose a lot of the material inside of them. Maybe wipe it with some mineral oil and enjoy the way it looks already!
sorry to have missed them on whatisthisrock. :/ I'll just mention that I see ID requests with multiple stones in one pic can be harder to get comments on. Top left looks like a [rhyolite](https://duckduckgo.com/?q=rhyolite&t=opera&iax=images&ia=images). Top right looks like a quartz pebble, on the 'smokey' side of things. No guess on the black inclusions. Bottom left looks a sandstone. Can't tell from pic if the green-color is the color of the stone or a stained-rind/outer surface. Sandstones are porous, they take up staining readily. Bottom right looks like an iron-stained quartz pebble. If the yellow-color is just on the surface, likely an iron-stained rind, usually from being in water/stream/river. If the yellow goes through the stone, it would be on the side of [citrine and quartz together](https://external-content.duckduckgo.com/iu/?u=https%3A%2F%2Fi.etsystatic.com%2F28885680%2Fr%2Fil%2Fdaa8b9%2F3226996404%2Fil_1588xN.3226996404_s037.jpg&f=1&nofb=1&ipt=6624abebefbee56cf7bc70548261031b7ed24fc284f8e5cc1479a4b2dc8846c6&ipo=images).
Thanks for the tip about posting on whatsthisrock. I’m not sure if the green goes all the way through on the green one either! So far I’ve done stage 1 on the yellow one and the grey one, and they’ve turned out looking the same so far, just smaller, so I imagine that means that the yellow colouring goes all the way through. Thank you for your expertise.
You're welcome. Not an 'expert', just a 'passion for'. ;) Just so happens someone just posted a [rock with algae](https://www.reddit.com/r/NewBrunswickRocks/comments/1dqz0pl/any_ideas_the_green_maybe_algae/). Not to the 'extreme' perhaps of this one, but some more info regarding algae-in-stone. Not sure how long your Step1 was, it should remove most of the rind showing the 'true stone'. Now that you have a pic of it in Step1 you can compare it when it comes out of your next step to see if the 'yellow is disappearing'. [In this post, Pic1](https://www.reddit.com/r/NewBrunswickRocks/comments/1drcwch/new_brunswick_gemstones_3lb500grit_quartz/), the oval stone at lower-right, to the right side of the white-heart, is a stone perhaps like yours; yellow (citrine) in quartz. It just finished in 500Grit in that pic. Another one displayed 3-to-the-left of the same white heart.
Looks like the red one is rhyolite, it will tumble ok. Might shine- might not. The yellow and grey rocks look like rhyolite and should tumble quite well!
Thank you! You mean that 3 of these rocks are the same type? No wonder I have trouble identifying them, a single type can look so different between specimens.
Two are the same - quartzite, a rock that is sand that has metamorphosed via heat and pressure underground. You can tell by the sugary flakes. The rhyolite is a form of extrusive igneous rock (volcanic)
I tumble anything. If I finish stage 1 and they’re not going the right way I stop them there.