Polished Rocks | Why They Shine & How To Get Better Results

When you start to work with natural materials like rocks, which are never going to be perfect for the most part, it's only a matter of time until you experience the frustration of something not taking that good of a polish, but what exactly is happening to a rock when you polish it, and how can you get better results?
Let's discuss it!
Thanks for watching!
Be sure to check out my website at currentlyrockhounding.com for tons of additional rockhounding resources and much more!
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#CurrentlyRockhounding #lapidary

[@CurrentlyRockhounding]

Did you enjoy this video and find it to be informative? You can help ensure that more videos just like this get made by supporting the project on Patreon. www.patreon.com/currentlyrockhounding

[@Love-Expansion]

What about Gembone? Or Agatized Dinosaur maybe every mammoth 😮

[@kellyharper367]

Old disabled house bound dusty rusty rockhound here: This is the best explanation of polishing rock surfaces I've ever seen! No joke! I'm a visual and experiential learner... this was perfect. It's always a pleasure to be invited into your lapidary shop! This old dog learned something today! 🐕

[@cherylmcnulty5122]

What a great explanation of polishing! Your videos are so informative with such clarity and awesome demonstrations. Thank you!

[@stephaniephelps3539]

Another great talk with excellent advice!

[@CurrentlyRockhounding]

Thank you.

[@olmilfishrock]

Another very informative video! I was having a hard time with scratches until I started totally drying my rocks and inspecting them with a magnifying glass under a bright light before I moved on to the next disk. It was a game changer for me. Thank you for sharing your knowledge with the rest of us!👍😎

[@CurrentlyRockhounding]

It's so simple but matter so much!

[@outdooradventureswithfayde6832]

Great video, Jared 👍 I always like the level of thought and effort you put into making content. The more informative content I think is much more appreciated as knowledge is valuable and even more when it is handed down from others who know by experience. Great examples, too, by the way.

[@largent45]

That was a great explanation about how the polishing wheels work on a rock! Simple and easy to understand for the beginner! Great video and the demonstration made it easy to follow and understand. And the different materials taking a different amount of shine is a hard concept for some to understand. You made it easy to catch on to and having all the different materials out to see the difference at one time was a great idea. Some people can't quite understand why softer materials don't shine as much as harder materials do. So it's good to be able to see an example and be able to compare them. Thanks Jared! ❤

[@spetkovsek57]

Ha, ha. Glad to see those collaboration pieces again. As we pointed out in those collaboration videos, it's up to the individual how much time they want to invest in polishing their materials. Constant inspection is key. You don't want to assume you did a good job, or you will have to go back and try again. As usual, another informative video. Thank you.

[@CurrentlyRockhounding]

This might sound stupid, but I think my biggest problem when I started polishing rocks was rushing through it and not taking the time to really dry the rocks off and examine them some before moving on. Which did nothing but produce frustration and more time having to go back a few steps.

[@spetkovsek57]

@@CurrentlyRockhounding It's because there is not a lot of training going on when it comes to high speed sanding. Hopefully, our videos are helping. Years ago I got a demo from John Richardson before he passed so that tells you how long ago that was. In his demo he sanded 80, 220, and polish (without cleaning it off between steps!). He got a decent polish though. I think he was hoping I would buy a sander, however I already had access to one.

[@Mike-br8vb]

I found that drying in between grits is crucial for a proper polish. I sometimes get to 10k grit only to realize that there are fine scratches on my rock. Start from the bottom again😒. Fantastic explanation of the polish process, Jared! Excellent video as usual!

[@patriciamckean4186]

Thanks for the information. Polishing is a learning process. At first I always tried to get a very shiny/mirror finish on all types of rocks. Thank you again for all your work.

[@KatyDidRocks]

Great artwork! I was really interested in the vertical orientation on the wheels - I'll definitely try that out. Thank you for your awesome, technical videos!

[@CurrentlyRockhounding]

Thank you.

[@francoiselandriault8164]

The video was very informative. I will change the way I polish my rocks by trying your method. Thanks for sharing your knowledge. It's always fun to learn.

[@CurrentlyRockhounding]

Try it out, I would love to hear if you get a different result.

[@charlesfosterrocks]

Thank you for what you do. You save me a lot of learning curve.

[@CurrentlyRockhounding]

Thank you for being here and watching.

[@Mrjoshuasjourneyzzz10420]

Nice!!! Side by side comparison, that's brilliant/slightly less brilliant!!!

[@kchamberlin]

Probably some of the best concise information I could have used last summer. Thank you. I was cross hatching oblivious. If you're ever out east hit me up!

[@CurrentlyRockhounding]

Thank you

[@sandmaker]

A good teaching moment. Thanks😊

[@jimedgar6789]

Awesome stuff... building a flat lap... this is good to know. Some people rotate them all over the grit.

[@kerickwalters2749]

Very straightforward informative video . Excellent job

[@CurrentlyRockhounding]

Thank you!

[@cliffmiller1021]

Oh oh, pro tips! Personally I'm having issues with keeping my rocks flat using the wheel, however I've only been using it for a couple months. I'm sure with your pointers and making some muscle memory, I'll get there in a couple more months.

[@hilaryb8807]

Me too! I’d love to see some tips on polishing a flat rock on a wheel.

[@taniakapronczai7652]

Thanks again for the great explanation! You can certainty hit the details that are mostly needed, making it easier to understand!

[@CurrentlyRockhounding]

I'm glad you liked it.

[@berndontour3273]

Danke.bin dein Fan hast du wirklich gut erkärt mit dem poloieren.lg Bernd

[@BlackHills68]

Thanks Jared for this video. Great information well explained.

[@CurrentlyRockhounding]

I'm glad you liked it.

[@Charley_Buehner]

Probably worth keeping in mind somewhere, using discs, the further out from center you get, the faster the grit is passing across your work - on lower grits that ~could~ theoretically result in uneven cutting. I have no idea if it'd make any noticeable difference in the lapidary field, but again, worth keeping in mind at least

[@robertvanfleet6263]

You have such a great personality I enjoy your videos thanks .

[@CurrentlyRockhounding]

Thank you.

[@cherieblossomarttravels]

So informative thank you 🙏 we got some nice thunder eggs, obsidian & variscite on a recent trip - can't wait to give all yr tips a burl 👍😁👍

[@shurpie8232]

Great tips! Maybe just me but I find that crosshatching actually helps you identify if you're done with a certain grit. Orientate grit 80 one way, then for 180, orientate it say 90° from the previous step. If you dry your rock and find any scratches going the wrong direction, you're not done with 180 yet. As far as how that affects final polish, I'm not certain but it works for me

[@GeologyDude]

Another great talk. Thanks much! Possible topic: Back in the 1990s, a lot of folks who owned rock shops said that interest in rockhounding was waning. Obviously, your channel, and many others like yours, shows that rockhounding remains popular. But there is much more competition from electronic media today. You recently bought old rockhounding magazines, and have noted a bit about the changing technology available to people at home. But how else has rockhounding changed in the last few decades? Is it waning, or stabilized at some different level? Has it rebounded? Just curious. Thx again!

[@CurrentlyRockhounding]

There has been a big increase in the number of people who are casually interested in rocks and rockhounding, but there is a big barrier in the world of lapidary, which is the cost and availability of machines. You can spend $10k really fast buying machines, which is wild for a hobby.

[@GeologyDude]

@@CurrentlyRockhounding thx for taking the time to let me know this. I appreciate it!

[@monarchfpv5511]

Thanks for the info man! Just got into this recently myself and I definitely learned alot from the video. I love your videos man, im also an Oregon local if you ever wanna find some rocks together!

[@CurrentlyRockhounding]

Thank you for being here and watching!

[@jeffdillon-zg7oq]

Great video. Explained it very well. I would like to see a video perhaps on using a flat wheel like on my slant cab versus around wheel on a cabochon machine. Also, have you ever considered like a buy me a coffee where you can make it one time contribution. Keep up the great work.

[@MrTurtleMontana]

Hey Jared! 👋 Thanks for the very informative video! You did a great job explaining everything! I was wondering why you're not a fan of cross-hatching? I do a lot of hand polishing, and I cross-hatch 99% of the time. My thinking is: 1.) Sanding perpendicular to the lines you're trying to remove, seems to be more effective than trying to sand them away in the same direction. 2.) I alternate sanding direction with every grit level. For example, I'll sand left to right with 120 grit, and then up and down with 220 grit, and then left to right with 400, etc. This allows me to remove previous scratches perpendicularly, which I find is more effective. This also allows me to very quickly identify if a scratch is from the previous grit level. If I'm sanding left to right, then I'm not done until I no longer see and scratches running up and down. Unfortunately, I don't have any evidence to substantiate my claim, other than my own, personal, enecdotal evidence... I'm curious what your thoughts are regarding these two benefits of cross-hatching. On a kinda-related side note, I often use a Sharpie and draw a cross-hatch on the face I'm polishing, and then I won't advance to the next grit level until there are no more Sharpie marks. This helps to make sure I don't advance until I've sanded the entire surface.

[@CurrentlyRockhounding]

There's a lot going on here, almost too much for a comment. Perhaps you could test this by cutting a rock in half and try each method on each side and see which one is faster for you and provides a better result.

[@RyanWeishalla]

It would be interesting if you would take a rock, cut it in half and see if you can get the same polish using the flat lap and the cabbing machine and the different techniques you have to use for each.

[@CurrentlyRockhounding]

I can do that sometime.

[@seditt5146]

I forget who did the study, I can look it up if need be however it was proven that polishing is not simply a matter of making smaller and smaller scratches. This was proven using markings on the rock which were pushed under the surface as when polishing takes place the actual rock material on the surface is moved kind of like playing. How exactly this works I am not sure nor do I believe the study produced sufficient evidence for a mechanism but it was shown that polishing is more than just scratching which I thought was interesting .

[@CurrentlyRockhounding]

I would like to see that study if you can find it.

[@user-ie1tz5rm8x]

Tis it a bit cool in the laboratory? .. gloves hat hooded coat and a vest? ..um foam is your friend- cut down sheets for the long skinny bays ...have a few cans of expanding foam , ..ah! You have rocks..get a water bed heater ..heat your rocks as if a wood stove. Also dry some cloths- pump the heat where you sit.

[@senorlaverg6667]

What is the thought process behind polishing the rock in the same direction? I was always taught that changing your angle by 90 degrees after each grit allowed you to better see which scratches were new and which you were trying to remove.

[@CurrentlyRockhounding]

From what I have tested, it's a slightly faster method. If you're drying your stone between stages and rolling a light over it, then you really have no need to deal with the rotating it 90 degrees because you can clearly see if something stands out as being missed. Why don't you give it a shot sometime.

[@senorlaverg6667]

@@CurrentlyRockhounding I shall. Thanks.

[@woodman4550]

I think you need to get a heater in your shop!! I get cold just watching!!

[@user-ie1tz5rm8x]

I'm making a candle fire place , for my apartment , collages of faces and hands , candles just to take the chill off the room , briskly. I might add a moat , oh ! Dude make a table out of two 55 gallon drums , heat the drums , aquarium heater should do.

[@CurrentlyRockhounding]

I do have a heater, but in a metal building without insulation it's rough. Someday I'll have a better work space.

[@empress6491]

Question, on the Loritone email do you think they'll have a clearance sale?

[@CurrentlyRockhounding]

I doubt it. They only sell to vendors now.

[@empress6491]

Thank you.

[@DanFarrar]

Custom auto painters got nothing on you. Perfect sheen and shine lol

[@CurrentlyRockhounding]

Ha! Thank you.

[@mariaelenajarrin246]

Do you know any polish jokes😂