How to Tumble Leland Blue Slag Glass
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- čas přidán 16. 03. 2023
- Subscriber Mark sent me some Leland Blue and along with my own small collection, I had enough to tumble a batch. I made a step by step tutorial of the process so you can see exactly how I did it.
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Thanks for this video and for sharing the finished product with me Rob. I'm glad you got to tumble it, some were so craggy. The rough Leland Blues I sent you were dug in Fishtown last Spring. They had the parking lot dug up and let us Michigan Rockhounds admins go at the piles on a Sunday when they weren't working. Love how it all turned out, it was a great experiment. Best, Mark
Thanks for sharing it with me, Mark. I had fun with it, although I ground a lot of it away. I think this stuff would be better used by slabbing it and making cabs. Most of it is finally on its way back to you. I kept a few small pieces that I think were mine, but it's so hard to tell after it's all mixed together.
Wouldn't the vibe tumbler work on the small ones?
And could you use a Dremel with a brass brush attachment to clean some of the gunk and softer rock?
@@dbomber69 I did use a vibe tumbler on these. I should have put some directly into the vibe. I definitely over tumbled some of these.
Tumbling man-made stuff, I never would have thought it. Being new at tumbling, I'm learning a lot by watching your videos. Thanks Rob.
You're welcome! You should look up Fordite or Detroit agate. It's manmade and awesome.
@@MichiganRocks I will, thanks!!!
@@JR-vi4rl If you get any Fordite, please be careful when working the material, because if you get your hands on some of the older stock, it will have lead in it...
Thank you. I am hoping to find my first Petoskey stone
@@MrTurtleMontana Thanks for the heads-up.
Old disabled house bound dusty rusty rockhound here: I've always had a soft spot for blue rocks and gemstones. I really enjoyed today's video!
I love your videos because I learn so much! I live a short 15 minute dog walk from the old Oregon Iron Mill on the Willamette River. You have me so excited to wake up early and search for some slag!
Good luck!
@@MichiganRocks I had such good luck finding slag in the beautiful spring sun. All I had to do was walk on the beach and find the glittery gravel patches. My favorite pieces are dark purple, green and half the casting of a pipe.
Question. There’s a good amount of iron on lots of the pieces. Should I soak in Iron Out or some solution before I tumble them? Would borax be enough?
I don't think borax would remove any iron. I have only heard of using Iron Out to remove iron staining from agates. If there are actual chunks of iron, like in some of my slag, I wouldn't try to remove it. Short answer: I don't know.
Thank you for the video!
Your'e welcome!
Thank you for all the hours you put in for your videos, we enjoy them!
You're welcome, Vicky!
It's always interesting to watch your videos. Thanks!!!
You're welcome!
@@MichiganRocks Have you ever tumbled a type of rock called Imperial Porphyry?
Nope. I have heard of Imperial Jasper, but not Imperial Porphyry.
That Leland blue turned out very nice! Some of it got so shiny. 😍🥰😇👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻
And others were duds. I'm glad you focused on the shiny ones!
Thanks for showing how to tumble slag glass!🙂 It's kind of funny because I found some today! And now I have a good recipe for how to tumble slag glass.
Good luck!
Thanks
That T-SHIRT is #Awesome. Great video. Need me some Blue for my collection.
Commented way too early the last time.. correction, those TSHIRTS are #Awesome.
I have a lot of T shirts.
@@MichiganRocks Very cool ones too.
Well, gee, now I need to go buy a Lot-o-tumbler. Lol. Thanks for the instruction. And, now I really miss Leland and can’t wait to visit this summer. We collected a lot of black slag in the U.P. last year at Bay Furnace. Now I know how to tumble it.
I like the short videos of the collection sites between the tumbling stages. Great video
Personally, I think tumbling videos can get a bit boring, so I try to think of things to keep them interesting.
🙌🏻 It was neat to see an unusual material being processed, and as always the video quality was top notch! I know this was a glass tumbling video, however; this time the t-shirt variety was my favourite part… 😂 Thanks for another cool demonstration.
I decided to vary from my usual Michigan shirts for this video and went with rock themed shirts. Thanks for noticing.
I agree! My favorite was the one that said, "Wait, I see a rock!" 😂
That was a gift from my sister. She's good at picking out good gifts.
Hey now Rob.... another wonderful blog, this time with Leland Blue! The different textures was a great change from the untra smooth, shiney treats you have. And the inserted clips between stages were perfect as well!
I thought the same thing!
He acted all nonchalant while advancing the imperfect material to the next stages, but we both know darn well that it was killing him on the inside!!
Thanks @jneilhart2!
@MrTurtleMontana, I wasn't unhappy about the air bubbles, but those cracks had to go.
This was very interesting! I really like the Leland Blue pieces! Thanks for another interesting and educational video. I promise I won't tell you to get a water pick lol 😅
I must have responded to 100 people suggesting that on one video.
I love how you show the places in Michigan in between the process
That was actually all the same place, Leland, Michigan.
This is the video I've been waiting for. I'm in St.Ignace and there is a bunch of slag glass in the area. There is an old slag dump down the road from my house. I have found some really nice stuff there.
Time to start tumbling that stuff!
Wow this is cool. Love the blue!
Nice, love the blue. I have a box of slag glass I collected to tumble, but nothing like those colours, not sure what the smelted here in Tassie, but they are mostly grey-green, I’ve never seen the lumps of metal, but I love them. Thanks for sharing
I think it's the fun colors that make this slag so popular.
Cool results! Enjoyed seeing the well documented process and scenic clips👍👍
I looked at the video and saw 31:38 minutes and thought, "Oh boy. Long one. Well. I can fast forward through the boring parts." But guess what. I didn't fast forward through any of it. Very interesting. Thank you. I was surprised at how un-blue most of the rocks were.
Leland blue is blue, purple, gray, or green most of the time. The light blue colors are the most sought after, I think.
I was going to ask about how do we get some of your AMAZING TUMBLE LELAND BLUE, BUT I checked on the info section and see that you have a store. I will check it out after watching this video.
Very interesting to watch and see the transformations. Nice!
I did watch that video, felt bad cause you didn't find a big one, but it was a great video, very entertaining, I just have to tell you, over this past weekend, I went to lake Huron, LakePort state park, you would have thought the college archeology dept. Was out there, So many people with scoops of every kind, I was devastated, needless to say I didn't find much, It was a beautiful day, but with warm weather coming, I feel I will have to find a new spot. Great video as always. I watched your Colorado video, your a brave man driving on the edge of those mountain roads. But it looked like an amazing trip. And love your rock T Shirts along with the U of M shirts. Thanks for the education ❤😊
I didn't feel too bad in Leland, it was a great day and it was fun just to see all of Cody's finds.
Too bad Lakeport was so crowded. I've hunted rock in Port Huron twice, both in the off season (like now). I saw people both times, but I can imagine how crowded that must get in the summer being so close to Detroit.
I am learning a lot too, thank you so much. I also went online to the rock shed shop you use and bought something today. I had a little trouble with the online page so I called and they were super nice!! I will be buying from them again.
That's a very well run business. You get Tootsie Rolls with your order too!
@@MichiganRocks I have never had a bad experience with them. Their customer service is great!
When I went there in February, the owner came up from his lapidary shop in the basement, and we chatted for a bit. His wife even came outside and helped me carry in the three milk crates I filled with material. The cashier was also great, even though she was taking all of my money! 😂
I hope to get there some day. I hear it's pretty small, but I'd still love to visit.
@@MichiganRocks The expression that comes to mind is 10 gallons of crap in a 5 gallon bucket... 🤣
But yeah, it's pretty small. The name "Shed" is appropriate. However, their outdoor yard is about 6 times the size of the building, and has quite a bit of material.
Bonus: it's only a few minutes down the hill from Mount Rushmore.
I wish I would have been into rocks when we took a family trip that included Mt. Rushmore.
I always dig different colored glass slag out of the fire pits when camping, then tumble it with my rocks. Always turns out cool
Great video Rob. We have a bunch of green and turquoise slag in SW Michigan too. I've never done a whole batch of it.
Give it a try.
I like the iron nodules too. Great video!!
So many cool things about this video! I really expected to be less fascinated, but you timed things just right so as to keep my interest and both teach and entertain. I imagine you were a really fun teacher.
Also, great T-shirts (love the Stop there’s a rock one and the state made from Petoskey stone ones) and Fishtown filler clips.
Finally, I enjoyed the end results variety. Love the light and bright blue ones, but the iron bubbles in oth er ones were cool. Thanks for sharing Rob.
Gosh, you're easy to please! I like that.
Thanks for that how-to Rob. You’re encouraging me to work on my box of Leland blue and some similar stuff from Christmas just west of Munising.
I picked some up from there, and then brought it back about five years later. I figured if I hadn't worked on any of it in that time, I never would! Most just looked like black obsidian, no fun colors that I found.
Really nice!!!
These are fascinating-I like the iron showing through as well. Thanks!😊
You're welcome!
Thanks Rob another great video. We have old iron furnaces at Land Between the Lakes here in Tennessee. And you find some of blue slag here as well. Thanks again I enjoy you videos.
Tumble that stuff up!
I finally got enough to do a batch may god have mercy on my soul hopefully they turn out as nice as yours! Good kid Rob!
Slag is so neat....found some that looks metallic with irrediscent. Need to check with my magnet.
Love the new T-shirts! Great video - I have a lot of slag from Marquette that I collected last summer.
I found a really nice one in Marquette a couple years ago. It hand fun, purple swirls in it. I tumbled it with a batch of rocks and it turned out great.
Nice work
Great video. Very laborious tumbling process, but the rocks can out beautiful
Some of them did at least.
Thanks for the inspiration. My Thumler will be here Monday
Awesome! Have fun with it.
Some are really glassy/glossy, love the blue ones, beutiful
This made me realize that I probably am not going to go through to work of tumbling the 7 leland blue I found a few weeks ago lol. Great video though
I like to tumble all different colors of slag rocks. They come out really neat. I’m still struggling to get a really nice polish on the clear ones. Gotta keep working on perfecting my methods.
That's part of the fun, trying new things and experimenting.
So glad you did this video Rob! I am currently tumbling Marquette slag, first step, right now and I am hoping it turns out as great looking as yours ☺️…. Thank you again for all the great tips, I don’t have a vibratory tumbler so using the rotary 🤞🏼 wish me luck lol
I tumbled a couple pieces of that with a regular batch of beach rocks and it turned out great. You can see them in this video: czcams.com/video/Ve48nPgqOpo/video.html
Great Video. I just did some Leland blues with some Sieber Agate and was thrilled with the way it came out. I used a Ultra Sonic cleaner which really helped getting the grit and polish out of the porous areas on the rock.
That's great. I have to go look up what Sieber agate is now.
Ok, looks like it's another type of slag. I had never heard of it before this.
Happy St. Patrick’s Day if that’s a deal for you 😂. Cool video, did not expect them to turn out like that. Was a fun one!
I'm a little bit Irish and I'm Catholic, so yes, it's a thing for me. Not a big thing, but definitely a thing. Happy belated St. Patricks day to you too.
This was fascinating for me, as i love my sterling and 'Lelanite' bracelet made by Wisconsin artist Joy Kruse of Wildprarie Silver. The long process from finding the rough chunk to finished shiny rock gives me a newfound respect. Then, shaped into a lozenges fitted into a perfect bezels and linked into a statement bracelet. I wish I could share a photo.
There are some really good artists making jewelry out of that beautiful industrial waste.
Great video 😊. Love these gems ❤.
I’m always surprised by how small they get. I’m going to have to bring some muscle with me cuz I want a big rock, lol.
If they have keep crevices or holes and you want to remove them, they're going to get a lot smaller. You could also opt to leave them in and have bigger rocks in the end.
Really neat to see this. I have some beautiful blue slag that I find on the St. Joseph River here in South Bend,IN. I have been wondering if I could tumble it.
As you saw, I had mixed results. At least some of them turned out well.
Those turned out great, I've never seen slag like that before. Over here on the East coast of Lake Huron there is slag all along the old rail trails and it looks like Iron coral, very rough and rusty, not glassy at all. I thought they used it berms to level the tracks but maybe it spilled from train cars. If it spilled, I don't know where it was coming from or going to. I should look into that part of local history, I'm always walking those trails and thinking I've found a piece of a meteorite, a slag one.
I have seen slag like that too. The slag turns different colors depending on the impurities in it. I've found some pretty purple slag up in Marquette and Frankfort, MI has green slag. We do find some ugly black stuff in Leland along with the pretty blues.
Loved this video can you please review the Dan and Darci
rock tumbler
Nope, it looks like it's just a National Geographic tumbler in a slightly different case. Here are all my National Geographic videos that probably apply equally well to the Dan and Darci tumbler:
Review: czcams.com/video/G71XbZTlQwM/video.html
How to use a Nat Geo Tumbler: czcams.com/video/CsTc1kXUuPo/video.html
Tumbling Beach Rocks: czcams.com/video/_Vmm24Fc7j4/video.html
Is the Nat Geo tumbler Too Fast? czcams.com/video/MjBtZ4-JheA/video.html
💎 Those rocks are both bizarre & beautiful - neat-o results Your attention to detail is admirable & excellent. I may never tumble nor polish rocks but your video is fascinating… If I do & I’m not ruling out anything in life , I know how to start this kick ass hobby
Rock & Roll All Night
& Lapidary Everyday ! !
🤘🤘🤘🤘🤘🤘🤘🤘
If you're fascinated by watching this, I think you should consider tumbling. It's much more fun to experience it yourself.
@@MichiganRocks I absolutely agree! While the process can be arduous at times, there is something very satisfying when you finish a batch and see the culmination of your efforts!
I have some Leland Blue. Looking forward to getting them tumbled.
Good luck!
I didn’t think slag would make it through polishing it. Looks very nice.
Surprise!
My NG tumbled machin came 4 days back n i remebered u …. Still hav t chk it …. I m nt sure if i will passs but excitemnt 😂
The Miracle is us, we can take those Leland Blue Rejects/others of your hands-hehehe, on a serious note let us know. MAN, OH MAN THOSE SLAGS ARE SHINNER THAN SHINNY. THAT'S WHY YOU'RE THE CHAMPION AND WILL ALWAYS BE IN MY UNBIAS OPINION. Giving credit where credit is due is how I've been practically all my Life. YOU have been Tumbling and YOU ARE THE CHAMPION, KEEP DOING I YOUR WAY, AND SHOULD YOU DECIDE TO ADD A TWIST, YOU ARE ONLY IMPROVING TO BETTER THE PRODUCTS-BUT THEY ALL MUST REMEMBER YOU ARE THE CHAMPION.
Thanks.
Awsome thanks for the advice. I'm from western pa I love lookin for Blue stone. I find it on the shores of Lake Erie and there are several old Iron furnaces in and in the surrounding counties. It's been used for fill and road surface fill mixed with limestone. I have a few honey holes. It looks nice rough in the rock garden. On the lake shore I find the same as what you find. I've never went out to deep to look for bigger pieces yet. My rough pieces are nice I have several 5 gallon buckets full.
What you're finding would just be called slag glass. Leland blue is slag glass, but from Leland, Michigan. Someone there was smart and gave their industrial waste a nice name so they could charge people lots of money for jewelry made out of it. Just a bit south of there, another town named theirs "Frankfort green". I don't think that's caught on as well though. You should give your slag a name based on where the furnace was that produced it.
@@MichiganRocks What I'm finding looks just like identical to Leland stone on the Erie lake shore and the rough stone I find at the slag dumps neat the old Iron furnaces here all over western pa. So in short.....I could call what I'm finding Leland Stone no one would know the difference.
@@miller7759 I guess that's true.
hey Rob… i really like some of the dark blue ones that look like a clear nighttime sky full of stars
The light blues are my favorites, but the dark blue and purple ones are my next favorite.
@@MichiganRocks that just about covers it 😂
Rob, thank you so much for all of your educational videos. I am enjoying this hobby immensely and it is because of you and your videos. I watched this video because I have collected a lot of Leland Blue. My question is how do you continue to tumble these if you do not have a loto tumbler? I am sure I am not your only viewer who doesn’t have one of those and would be interested in how to finish tumbling, either with a rotary tumbler and/or sandpaper. Any instructions you can offer would be greatly appreciated. Thank you!
I have only tumbled them this way. I know that with obsidian, which is volcanic glass, it takes a very, very long time in each grit to tumble them in a rotary tumbler. I have not done that either, but I know a couple people who did. Since this is glass and that's glass, I'd think the same thing would apply here. I think the reason it takes so long is that glass is pretty soft compared to a lot of rocks. Being softer, it breaks down the grit at a much slower pace. Therefore, you have to tumble it longer to break it down.
COOL! Love the ones with the iron in them yet.
Now you got me thinking, many years ago I visited a staindglass factory. Around back, they had junk pile, like cleaned out the oven and big junks. Wonder how that would tumble up?
Great work and dedication over the weeks to make a complete video.
I need to play catch up on your channel, been a busy few weeks here. Cheers from the 920 of Wi.
There's a guy on the Rock Tumbling Hobby forums who tumbles a lot of glass, and does a great job of it. He has a ton of posts showing finished results as well as tumbling techniques. He's a great guy too. forum.rocktumblinghobby.com/thread/82963/tumbled-glass-out-sunday-15
Amazed that the blue Colors did not really shine until the end. Appreciate the work you did to show oforf the hidden beauty
Yep, there was a big difference in the end products. I was sort of surprised too.
First, thanks for all the videos! I never knew I would like getting into this hobby, but I'm definitely enjoying it a ton and I wouldn't have been able to do it without your videos. I went looking back at a couple videos trying to find where you actually used some sort of water pick type thing, but I can't seem to find it. Do you know which video that was or am I just imagining things?
Nope, you're not imagining things. It was here: czcams.com/video/xohUKfhjPkE/video.html
I wonder does the iron get oxidation after a few months. You have a variety which is good for learning, glass is always hard. Have a good weekend.
I'm not sure. I sent most of this to the guy who gave it to me, so I won't really be able to check.
Fishtown looks like a neat little tourist village.
It's a really cool spot. It has that old fishing wharf sort of feel to it. It's what I imagine New England looking like, although I've never been there.
I have multitudes of large, small, and really large pieces of blk, blue, and green we own property in virginia that was home of The California Furnace and The Hope furnance we cant dig without unearthing piles 🤣🥰
Now you know something you can do with it!
I have been considering polishing up a batch of Leland Blue soon. And here you have a video on it. I wonder if we can skip the course polish or shorten the time some due to the beach working on the stones for 100 years.
Some of mine were beach worn. I could have saved a lot of the size if I hadn't been picky about getting out all the chips.
@@MichiganRocks Yeah, I see that you are a perfectionist on those details. I am also wondering about grinding or polishing on a wheel.
Those iron bumps really are cool in the finished "rocks". It's interesting that the slag from old smelters ended up in the lake. It's kind of odd how various bodies of water were once considered appropriate for waste disposal. Cool for collectors though. They must recycle it now days. Is it becoming harder to find?
There's a finite amount, so it's always in shorter supply.
I worked at a place about 100 miles from the Gary, In. steel mills. They would haul it by Railroad headed due south. It was in big chunks like cow paddy’s and a dark glassy green color when you broke it open. Some of it would occasionally fall off the RR cars. Someone told me that they used it in fertilizer. I wouldn’t think it would have any nutritional value. Maybe they used it as a filler or something.
Ultrasound cleaners can fracture and shatter some stones. Such as the beryl family like emerald and aquamarine. So if you do decide to use one, make sure you know what kind of stone it is first.
Yes, I've heard the same thing. I don't plan to get one because I usually tumble the holes out of my rocks.
10:04 Fishtown ❤
Hey I am going to be vacationing in the upper peninsula later this year. Can you recommend some good beaches to look for rocks or flour gold? Thanks
There is a lot of black sand that usually contains flour gold and also good rocks between Grand Marais and Whitefish Point. At Muskallonge Lake State Park, you can get a permit to use powered sluices on the beach. In other places you can only pan.
Those iron nodules made me think. Could you use a really strong magnet like they use to pick up roofing nails to sweep the beach/surf for the slag?
Possibly, but I think the good stuff doesn't have a bunch of iron in it.
I found a mini one in my croc last year.
That's a good way to collect them!
Do you give your barrels a thorough, deep cleaning? If so how and how often? Since they are plastic/rubber so I was wondering if they dry out or dry rot like tires? If so, is there anything you do in particular to help lengthen their lives? Edit: Thank you for your videos, you were the one that got me into rock tumbling to begin with!
I do not ever give them a deep cleaning. Most of the time, I just swish some water around in them and dump it out fast so any grit that might be in goes out with the water. I do this several times between stages. They don't seem to get hard with age, at least not much. I have barrels that I've been using for over ten years that are holding up fine.
I LOVE your shirts! lol Some of those rocks are so beautiful....aren't they worth some bucks?? Some look like the night sky in a dark park!
I think the bigger pieces are worth something if they're a good color. I don't think there was anything of too much value in this batch though.
Hey thanks for this video. People who find old bottles in dumps and provide can Tumble them to smooth out the hazze, etching, small chips and scratches. I wonder how their processes compare to your choices: I believe they do shorter rounds at diff grit levels. Seemed like you lost 50 percent or more of the material, with complete loss of many smalls. (Might have gotten the wrong impression just from the way was shown). Is that an acceptable or usual loss level? To me seems like loss of rare artefacts. I wondered if for glass the rounds should be shorter, to save some of the smaller pieces before they were gone. I really appreciate your thought processes and decision making being shared! A great level of detail, thank you! As an alternate perspective: For me and my slag glass collection (from old glass factories along rivers), I love the rough parts embedded against the shiny: it reflects the manmade being dumped into lake or river material when hot and mixing with native rocks and sand. This is not the perspective of the pro rock tumbler, I know
I don't think there's anything "pro" about tumbling every flaw out, that's just what I prefer. I did lose a lot of mass by doing so, and you're right that some small ones were lost completely. That's a trade off I'm willing to make, but many people might make a different choice.
If you wanted to keep your pieces larger, I'd only shorten up the first stage. That's where most of the grinding takes place. With soft material like glass or slag, those later stages have to be run for longer times. I know that's counterintuitive, and I can't tell you exactly why that is. I suspect it's because the softer material has a harder time breaking down the very hard silicon carbide and aluminum oxide. The grit has to break down to smaller particle sizes to continue to make the surface of the glass (or rock) smoother.
@@MichiganRocks its a beaitiful and varied grouo of final rocks!
T-shirt envy 😂
When I tumbled mine I followed the instructions for obsidian that elk rapids stuff would be Huron side if it's green
Elk Rapids is on Lake Michigan. I don't know of any smelters that were on Lake Huron. There might have been some, but I just have never heard of them.
It was definitely Elk Rapids where I got the green slag. Some were quite large.There was even a fire pit made out of it where I picked it up. Thought that was cool.
That is cool. Must have been big stuff to make a fire pit out of it.
is the slurry a hazard or just a drain clogger
Just a drain clogger. I don't think there's anything too harmful in this particular slag.
Does rock tumbling take a month to polish Rocks?
Yes. For how I do them, a month is about the minimum. If I didn't tumble out every little hole and crack, I could probably get them done in under a month.
Not to sure I would want to waste so much time and supplies on this stuff. Some of them turned out well but most seem to be too full of bubbles and cracks. I do appreciate you sharing with us, though. It’s always fascinating to see what you’re working on.
I do have a question, though. You said that you used the Borax to clean the grit off of the rocks, but you added Borax to the last 2 stages with the compound. Wouldn’t the Borax keep the polish from working properly?
The borax makes the polish work better. It thickens the slurry which makes the finer grits stick to the rocks better. It's not necessary in the 220 stage because the slurry gets really thick on its own there. I know of a woman who uses Metamucil in her Lot-O tumbler to thicken the slurry and she gets awesome results with it.
Leland blue is used in jewelry a lot, and it's not cheap either. I don't know that I'd tumble it again, but I'd definitely slab some for jewelry if I found big enough pieces. I'd also hold out for the nicer blue shades.
@@MichiganRocks seems like I saw a video of this stuff cabbed and it was beautiful. Not sure if you made it, or someone else. But looks like tumbling is not the way to go. Thanks for explaining the Borax for me!
I made a small cab out of it once for a belt buckle. czcams.com/video/qVDhaxb4l8M/video.html
This stuff is made into cabs for jewelry a lot. It's very popular.
Good luck man
Since Leland blue is manmade I wonder if maybe it doesn't count towards how much rock you are allowed to take home. It is sort of like picking up litter.
That's exactly how I feel. I don't know for sure though.
There is no limit on the amount of slag you can take in a year according to Michigan DNR.
Thanks, Jason.
Good morning sir ,,,,,,,, you want to buy emerald rough materials mines???
No.
👁👁 👋
❤ 🪨
Have you tumbled pieces of wood before? Non petrified
No I haven't. I have it on my list of things to try. Here's the problem, though. Grit will get stuck in the wood and stay there. There's no way that you're going to make it shiny, but I don't even know if you could make it really smooth since coarse grit will get in the wood and continue scratching as you move to finer grits. I think a more reasonable goal would be to take fresh wood and turn it into fake drift wood. I think if I try, I'll use sand as my abrasive. That way, there won't be black silicon carbide stuck in the wood. The sand will more closely match the color of the wood.
By the way, I've heard that it's a bad idea to cut driftwood with a saw or to carve it with a knife because the embedded sand will dull your tools.
@@MichiganRocks you know your stuff man! I thought it might too so that sand idea is epic. Would a dry tumble be better for the wood in sand? I found some rocks in California on a group getaway and burned palo santo. Thought it'd be cool to smooth them all out and put then in a pot with the seeds I found and will grow as well. You confirmed the grit problem though so thank you. Same with aluminum im sure
I don't know if tumbling them dry would be better than wet. I was thinking I'd use water to simulate what happens to drift wood, but keeping them dry would keep the wood harder and maybe prevent so much sand getting stuck in it. I think you should try both ways. I probably will too.
@@MichiganRocks will do thanks again. I'm still working with the national geographic. The clay pellets do wonders for filling space. Maybe first few runs dry then last wet after things have polished down some. This will be fun to see
You're ruining awesome awesome Leland blues and Frankfort appreciate how they started