How to Polish Rocks

Polished rocks are a beautiful addition to any rock collection. The process of polishing rocks involves using a finer and finer grit abrasive until the desired shape and smoothness is reached. Most rocks are polished using a rock tumbler and can take up to 6 weeks. Heed the following tips and unearth your own buried treasures from any pile of rocks.

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Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Rock tumbler
• Bulk rough rocks
• Abrasive grits(silicon carbide): coarse (60/90 grit), medium/fine (120/220 grit)

Tumbler Polishing

1. Step 1

   Purchase a rock tumbler and bulk rocks and stones at a hobby store or online (see Resources).

2. Step 2

   Add rocks and coarse abrasive grit (this typically comes with hobby tumbling kits) to the tumbler and let polish for one week.

3. Step 3

   Remove rocks from the tumbler and wash thoroughly.

4. Step 4

   Put rocks back in tumbler with a medium grade abrasive for one week.

5. Step 5

   Remove rocks from the tumbler and take out any pebbles or rocks that have sharp points.

6. Step 6

   Prepolish rocks in tumbler for 10 days. Do final polishing for 2 weeks, remove and wash thoroughly. Spread out onto a towel to dry.

Tips & Warnings

• Unlike polishing rocks by hand, with a rock tumbler you don't have to be quite as particular about the hardness of the rock you want to polish.
• Gloves and safety glasses are recommended.