Polishing your favorite rocks not only add beauty, but it gives you a sense of personal accomplishment. You can now use your polished stones in jewelry, sell them or keep them in your rock collection. Choose between polishing your rocks by hand, using a rock tumbler or a vibratory tumbler. Advantages of using rock tumblers include the ease of use, low price and rounder stones. Vibratory tumblers make your rocks shinier in a shorter period of time.
Hand Polishing
Polish rocks by hand using soft stones like limestone, onyx, dolomite or calcite. You can use harder stones but they will take longer to polish. After putting on safety glasses and gloves, start by removing any protrusions or bumps from your stones using a chisel or a small hammer. Rub your stones against concrete to get rid of protrusions as well.
Get a sheet of 50 grain sandpaper and rub your stones on it to get the shape you desire. Take a sheet of 150 grain sandpaper, a finer grade, to removes scratches from the previous sandpaper. Using a yet finer grain of sandpaper, a 300 to 600, remove additional scratches.
Your stones will shine when you rub them against 1500 grain sandpaper. You can also use any powdered polish and a piece of denim or leather cloth to polish your stones. Dampen your sandpaper or cloth first to prevent hazardous rock dust from flying around.
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Using a Rock Tumbler
Place your rocks in a rock tumbler with water and coarse sandpaper and polish them for a week. After the week has passed, wash the stones well, then repeat with a medium grain of sandpaper for a week. Get rid of stones with sharp edges, stones under 1/4 inch in size or broken stones. Repeat for 10 days, then add pre-polish to the tumbler along with the stones and water and tumble the rocks for an additional two weeks. After removing more broken and tiny rock pieces, add polish and tumble for just a few hours. Rock tumblers use a series of finer sandpaper grains and polishes until you get the shine and shapes you desire.
Protecting Yourself
Always wear approved safety goggles and a mask when polishing or sanding stones. Some softer stones create a dust that you can inhale, which is hazardous to your health. For example, dust particles from quartz stones like amethyst and onyx become highly toxic when inhaled, creating lung problems like fibrosis and emphysema. Dust from soapstone and granite also become toxic to your body because they release large amounts of silica. Stay away from stones that may contain asbestos such as New York soapstones and use alabaster instead, according to a Princeton University Environmental Health and Safety article on "Stones and Lapidary."
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