Add about a cup and a half of clean leather bits, and water to full.Ĥ. Tumble for two more weeks with one pound of 600 grit to 10 pounds of Tears. Again the Apache Tears are washed, and separated from leather bits. Thumbler's AR-12, 12-pound tumblerĪvailable at Kingsley North, 3. Add about a cup and a half of leather bits, and water to full. The Tears are then tumbled for two weeks with one pound of 220 grit for each 10 pounds of Tears.
The stones are washed and Apache Tears are separated from the agate. Water is added, and this tumbled for a month.Ģ. Place Apache Tears of various dimensions with other agates, a half-to-half ratio, with one pound of 90 grit to 10 pounds of rock, in the tumbler barrel.
Do not attempt to tumble it with anything harder, except in the first rough grind to smooth edges. Just keep in mind that you are handling glass with a Mohs hardness of about 5½.
#Apache tears rock plus#
So, we tried the methods of various others who reportedly “had the answer.” However, nothing seems to work, so by careful questioning and sheer tenacity, plus some thought of our own, we figured it out. So, we read a bit and tried again, only to fail again. While we had seen beautifully polished Apache Tears, our results were often like frosted concord grapes - all dark and sugary. Kingsley North, Within the U.S., Apace Tears are often found in the West, less so east of the Mississippi, unless found in the back lots of disgruntled hobbyists who tried in vain to turn them into lovely, high-polished gemstones. The chemical and mineral compositions are the same. Obsidian is actually the non-crystalline equivalent of granite, which in turn is the coarse-grained equivalent of rhyolite. This is not due to the minerals involved as much as it is the structure. Most people who are unacquainted with Apache Tears are amazed to learn that light can be viewed through them. However, the process of breakdown takes many, many years, so you will be safe wearing them. Obsidian, like any glass, just is not stable. This does not imply that the polished Apache Tear, worn on a necklace, will crumble and fall on the toes of the wearer. So, relatively speaking, there is no old obsidian, although it may age the rockhound who works with it. Left in place, all of the obsidian in any deposit would slowly weather into perlite. The proper name for these stones is merekanite, but they frequently are called other even less-attractive names before they are successfully polished. This new rock, called “perlite,” erodes away, leaving rounded black nodules of the original obsidian - Apache Tears - to become a joy or plague to the rockhound who tries to polish them in a tumbler. In weathering, especially where water got into cracks or crevices, this natural glass contracted and fractured into curved scales, much like the layers in pearls. Any of the liquid magma that reached the surface is called lava, and lava that cooled so quickly that it did not have time to crystalize is called “obsidian,” or volcanic glass. Magma boiled and seethed below the surface and, in some areas, forced its way upward to spill out of volcanoes and fissures. Many years ago, in what is now our Western States, there were violent upheavals within the earth. Editor's Note: This timeless article is a flashback from the Rock & Gem archive. Various tumbling rough, like the Apache Tears pictured, are available through Kinglsey North, sponsor of Tumbling Talk.
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