Q&A for How to Polish Rocks

You can use dish soap and a brush such as a thick-haired brush or horsehair brush to clean the crystals. Animal hair brushes are more sturdy. Think about what you want to remove from the quartz crystal. If you want to remove dirt, you need a more sturdy brush. But a simple toothbrush is sufficient for cleaning hand lotions and oils.

Diamond jewelry has a gold or platinum setting. You can use a bowl of warm water, a drop of dish soap, and a child's toothbrush to clean it. Remember to clean the back of the stones. It is necessary to clean the top part. But it is also essential to clean the pavilion or underside of the precious stones.

Expect 3-4 weeks of tumbling rocks to get a super smooth finish ready for burnishing.

You can use mineral oil. Drop the stones into a bath of mineral oil and leave them there for about five minutes.

It is a liquid metal polish made by AUTOSOL. "METAL POLISH LIQUID, Cleans, Polishes, Protects" is what is written on the black bottle. (See the video below the comments.)

Yes. You can also use water and no grit. Using water mimics natural water from springs running over rocks over time. Tumbler and water speeds up the natural process.

To tell if it’s a geode, knock on it. If it sounds hollow, it's probably a geode. Either way, you can crack it open to find out for sure.

Hammering won't polish them, it'll just give you more unpolished rocks. You can make a poor man's tumbler by fixing a bolt to the lid of a jar and screwing it to a power drill.

Take a container, put your rocks in, put some sand and water in; then shake the container (with the lid on). This will take a long time, but it will work.

Clear fast-drying nail polish works well. Use thin, light coats and let dry fully between coats. If it's too shiny, you can you use the fine sandpaper to make it look more natural.

You can polish quartz chrystals with sandpaper. First 50 grade, then 150 grade, then 300 or 600 grade sandpaper.

Try rubbing compound and a soft towel. Get it at any automotive store. It works really well on limestone. If you want to polish hard stones, try it with power tools.

Try drilling the hole before polishing, after sanding or tumbling the stone.

Yes. You can either tumble or sand it by hand but, either way, you can polish it. This goes for all other types of rocks and crystals too, it just depends on how hard it is as to how long it takes, if you are doing it by hand. If you do it by the tumbler, then it takes about a couple of weeks.

Attach a 120-grit wheel, drum, disc or belt to your polishing machine. Start with a light pressure and increase until you see sanding in progress. Move the direction of the jade at least 90 degrees within every 15 seconds to curb gouges, chips and undercutting of the stone.

This, of course, depends on where you found the rocks. If you found them near water, there is a higher chance of there being a fossil inside than if you live, in, say Indiana. You will likely want to use a chisel and hammer for these rocks.