![]() Obsidian, with a hardness of 5 to 5.5, is brittle and chips easily. ![]() Perlite is used in making lightweight concrete and is also used in the manufacturing of insulation. It is interesting to note that the “Apache Tear” and perlite surrounding it have been formed from the same volcanic material and yet the “Tears” are dark in color and its coating of perlite is light in color. Hold the “Tear” to the light to see how translucent it is. Tumbling and polishing will reveal a shiny glass pebble that may be black or smoky in color. “Apache Tears” are found in grayish white volcanic material called “perlite.” Perlite is obsidian that has weathered and altered until it has become porous and lightweight.Įach “Apache Tear” lump will have an uneven coating of perlite clinging to it after being pried or dug from a mass of perlite. The hot lava forming obsidian cooled much too quickly to allow crystals to form. Don’t look for crystals of obsidian because you won’t find any. “Apache Tears” have been found primarily in Arizona, Nevada, and New Mexico.Īll “Apache Tears” are obsidian, but not all obsidians are “Apache Tears.” Obsidian is natural volcanic glass. ![]() As you probably have guessed, these nodules are found in locations where Apache Indians lived in the US Southwest. Not all rock and mineral books have a listing for “Apache Tears.” This is because “Apache Tear” is not a valid mineral name but is a well-known nickname for some obsidian nodules. Another lesson for another day.If you have a specimen in your collection labeled “Apache Tear” and want information about it, you could have a problem. This also tells me that I need to go ahead and take some pics of each stage results and figure out how to post here. I keep a good bit of the tumble pour off/rinse off and once it's dried out, I set it aside as thickener for other tumble runs. I have been skipping the 600 stage as the idea that the 220 breaks down every 2 or 3 days definitely works for me. Then to 220 with used slurry, might go as long as 10 to 12 days with only one re-charge at 2 or 3 days. ![]() will use 80, and monitor the progress during the re-charges. Will try a fuller load for the 1st stage with the used tumbling slurry I have been using successfully. They came out great so will use the same for polish on he Tears. Tried Cat Liter as a polish thickener on previous batch of Round Mountain Chalcedony from New Mexico(actually just across the border into Arizona). I only have one barrel which I reserve for polishing. From the reading I will definitely do the polish stage in my UV-18 Vibrating tumbler. Good luck and supply us with photos along the way. Granted, they all rotary tumbled for the first stage only, then they went into the Lot O for the rest of the process. They turned out just fine, even with much harder material in there. I had a few with larger chips that didn't finish with the majority of others, so they got thrown into general population with everything else in the large barrel. I'm sure they can be finished off faster, and with less fuss. My small barrels don't grind as fast as the 12 lb. Even with softer material, a lot of them tumbled for about six or seven weeks in stage one. I also added a bit of cat litter to thicken the slurry. I tumbled them in two three pound barrels with lots of plastic pellets and started them in 60/90. They were round of course, but had plenty of chips. I got rough off the internet, so I don't know what kind of shape they were in compared to yours. I just finished a batch last month, you may have seen those pics.
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