To tumble or not to tumble? that tis the question!

[Mojo618]

So this quartz looked nice in the water! Lol not so pretty dry! Can anyone recommend a rock tumbler? What can I do to polish them up if I don't bother buying a tumbler?

 

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[old digger]

My guess is that if you tumbled some of those pieces, they would break apart into smaller pieces. I would tumble material (pieces of chert, or jasper) that have less or no flaws But the good side is that those smaller pieces would have fewer flaws in them. Your previous post included a sizable piece of solid quartz, have it cut or break it down and try polishing those pieces. If you don't have a lapidary saw, you can use a ''tile saw'' that has a diamond blade. Some rental places have them.

 

[StoneWhisper]

Off hand.. you do have a few worth tumbling.. but as for the clustors.. I would clean them up with dawn foam and a tooth brush then set out of the sunlight in a display case.. I would do a pretumble (place in tumbler first without any grit) to see how well the stones hold up.. also.. Best find out more about what you have and groug the same hardness up.. or you'll have one good tumble allong with alot of small chards.. After the first pretumble.. get the stones wet to see how well they would look aferward.. this can help you deside if in fact they are worth tumbling at all. typically a pretumble should last 5 - 7 days.. the quartz type stoens should tumble up easy.. while anything that may look "crumbly" will simply break apart in the tumbler..
I end up doing this myself and have several small buckets awaiting the tumblers.. I've found I'm not tumbling as much anymore due to the fact that the tumbler draw electictristy and we are on a tight budget at the moment..
As for the last two or three images.. the clustor is not tight enough to slab cut.. thus called a "loose formation" and one could break it wil a hammer to access something better within the formation.