TUMBLING ABRASIVES

Sort by

Shop for the abrasive grits you need in your rock tumbler to turn stones into shiny tumbled gems.

Once you've picked out your rock tumbler, you'll need a few more supplies to tumble your stones. Select from pre-packaged grit kits containing the abrasives needed from start to finish, or top off with individual bulk grits and polishes to fine-tune your process. Use in rock tumblers, flat laps, sphere machines, & wherever you need coarse & fine grit.

How to choose rock tumbling grit & polish

Grind and sand your stones using silicon carbide abrasives with sharp, hard grains for fast cutting while rock tumbling your gemstones and follow up with various polishing options. Smash those corners and points in the tumbler, wipe out saw marks on the lap, get those stones ready for some polish slurry. Use these abrasives in tumblers, flat laps, sphere machines or wherever loose coarse and fine grinding grits are needed. Available in various size and grit packagings. Start off by using coarse, medium/fine, and fine grits, followed by a pre-polish and then finally polish. Plastic pellets or ceramic media are important to use for delicate stones, or when using a vibratory tumbler. Harder rocks and rocks that have strong angles will take longer than softer, smoother rocks to shape.

Silicon carbide is an abrasive material commonly used as a grinding and sanding abrasive. Silicon carbide grit is harder than most other types of stone and can be used to wear away the sharp edges and pits of rough stones. Graded grits with a single number can be more predictable in a vibratory rock tumbler, while mixed grade silicon carbide such as 60/90 or 100/220 can be appropriate in a rotary tumbler. Silicon carbide eventually wears down into finer grits with use and should not generally be re-used. It is also important to avoid cross-contaminating your loads, you must carefully and thoroughly clean your stones before advancing to a finer grit.
Aluminum Oxide is a popular pre-polish, and can prepare the stones for final polish.
DP-Polish is a versatile multi-purpose polish for most lapidary materials and will produce an excellent shine.
Micro-alumina, tin oxide, and cerium oxide are higher-grade polishes that can be effective on difficult or softer materials.
Diamond Pacific's Vibra-dry compounds can spare you the mess and waste of traditional abrasives in a vibratory tumbler with a series of reusable media which does not need water to work.
Diamond is not typically used to tumble stones.