2026 Rock Tumbling Contest (Part 13): Another Tool, Another Week

It’s Week 12 clean-out of the 2026 Worldwide Rock Tumbling Contest rocks. While the Sardonyx filler we added last week is starting to smooth down beautifully already, its aggressive grinding action caused some chipping on the thin edge of one of the larger rocks. To sort that out without losing any more material, we break out a brand-new tool from the lapidary arsenal to manually reshape the damage before charging the barrel for lucky week 13 of the first stage. Part 12:    • 2026 Rock Tumbling Contest (Part 12): A Su...   Part 14:    • 2026 Rock Tumbling Contest (Part 14): Stag...   Video Summary Opening the barrel this week brings a mix of fascinating material changes and stubborn flaws. As the Dead Camel Jasper wears down deeper, the intense red exterior is actually wearing through to reveal underlying layers of brown and gray. Our infamous pinhole stone has officially opened up into a distinct channel line, while our "broccoli-textured" rock has flattened out significantly but remains craggy. After evaluating the chipped edge, likely caused by the Sardonyx filler, we use diamond-impregnated hand files to manually round off the jagged spots and safely graduate the stone into the Stage 2 jar. The rest of the stragglers are heading back into coarse grit with the Sardonyx for another week of stubborn perfectionism! In This Video Week 12 Barrel Rinse: Filming a rinse for the first time in quite a few weeks. The Chipping Dilemma: Realizing the Sardonyx filler likely caused a thin, delicate edge on one of the contests rocks to start chipping. Color Transitions: Observing how wearing down the jasper is revealing hidden internal layers of gray and brown. Pinhole Channel & "Broccoli" Rock Update: Tracking the structural changes of our most infamous problem rocks. Diamond File Reshaping: Breaking out diamond files to smooth out the jagged edges and graduate a hard-earned piece to Stage 2. Charging Week 13: Returning the remaining jasper and the Sardonyx back into the barrel with fresh Stage 1 grit. Join the Fun Feather River Lapidary & Mineral Society: https://www.featherriverrocks.org/ Equipment Rotary Tumbler: Dual 3lb Central Machinery tumbler from Harbor Freight Grit: 60/90 Silicon Carbide from The Rock Shed 20 Mule Team Borax Manual Tooling: Mini Diamond-Impregnated Files Filler Material: Rough Mixed Sardonyx and a handful of ceramic cylinders Subscribe to follow my progress in the 2026 Worldwide Rock Tumbling Contest! #RockTumbling #FRLMS #Jasper #Lapidary #RockHounding #Stage1 #Geology #Sardonyx #CoarseGrind #DiamondFile #PatienceOrMentalIllness More updates and past batches at   / eyetumbleforya