For Christmas 2020 my long suffering wife got me a new toy to play with, although it has captured #1 Granddaughter’s imagination, & subsequently Pru has hijacked it, we have no idea where a six year old got the imagination that this was going to make pretty stones and jewellery, we know it was not the box, she wanted to do it the minute Pru was told it’s purpose, she could not wait to get it out of the box…
She knew instantly what it was for & its capability to be able to create what she wants, so if i manage to use it personally, it will be used as a tumbler for rocks, detecting finds and anything else that i can think off to put inside;
Along with the main piece of kit, i also got some more grit, the rocks and the grit in the starter pack is great as we can see what to expect, but in my line of work i pick up rocks and stones all the time, so now we can make them stand out with there natural beutety… Before me and Pru started we removed the double layer of drum seals, there is an outer one and an inner one, have started to use grit one, this takes the rough or sharp edges off the stones and rounds them off, reading the instructions we decided that i should open the grit and place it inside the empty drum, before Pru gently put the rocks into the drum, leaving the drum now half full, ideal for putting the right amount of water into, my job again, i filled the drum up to just over the rocks, whilst i was doing this Pru put the knob of the drum back onto the seal, ready for me to push it into place, then she could take it of and put it onto the outer seal making a watertight seal for the drum to begin its five day cycle…
I ought to mention here that my daughter lives next to us and there is a side gate from one house to another, so there is no escape i have lost my rock tumbler, for the moment anyway [- to be honest i would have it no other way -] so after a visit every day from Pru, i was informed after a five day countdown that the first cycle had finished…
We set ourselves up on the tiled kitchen floor, with a plastic biscuit box left over from Christmas, along with the white hand strainer, & ready ourselves for the task ahead, getting in each others way, but together we poured the stones out of the barrel and into the strainer, i soon realised the strainer is a token item in the box, as the rocks were soon spilling over into the rather murky grey water we had just tipped out…
Mistake number one – they recommended we do it in the garden and not put it into the sink, using the outdoor tap, now i see why, we were stranded on the floor, with grey murky stones, and nowhere to rinse off the rest of the grey dust which now being wet clung to everything, along with the clogging grit which still clung to the stones, so after making a quick decision i squirted some fairy liquid around the bottom of the sink, hoping it would offer some protection to the stone sink, whilst Pru was picking up the stones that had escaped into the grey murky container, i dislike wasting water, but there was no other way out, we had to run the cold water tap to rinse the stones, we were soon washing off the grit using the strainer provided, still leaving a rather murky grey water running down the plughole, within seconds the colours of the stones were starting to show through, with what looked like Jasper and a blue stone, although in my opinion it maybe needed a few more days on cycle one, a little girls patience dictated stage two needed to be started, so hey who am i to argue…
Below is an interval until i get more pictures and details up…
Tumbling in Stages…
Northeast Detectorist 
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