I am so glad I'm not the only person who has buckets of random rocks that have no real purpose but get kept forever because each rock is special. It's a lifestyle.

I do batches of random rocks for my girls and their friends. They spend so much time picking through for their favorites and trade them with their friends for hours. I set up my light table and give them magnifying glasses and lupes they can share

I've got an old plastic peanut butter jar filled with raw agates I picked out of gravel pits when I worked as a truck driver hauling gravel in to a factory that made prefab reinforced concrete, some 30 odd years ago. As I was the only lady driver in the company, the guys I worked with started picking out any cool rocks they found for me as well. Never got a tumbler, and when I took my 'umble collection to a rock club to see if they'd tumble them for me, they sniffed at my collection and said it wouldn't be worth the time. This makes me want to get a tumbler myself and give it a go - I bet my little agates would shine up just fine if even this bunch of random rocks came out so pretty...

My biology professor always said "there's no such thing as a failed experiment, record everything that happens, you can always learn from it". That's definitely what happened here, i think we all learned a lot from this! I have no idea how i ended up here btw, i was randomly recommended this video. I love seeing people's hobbies and how interesting they are!

I know nothing about rock tumbling but I do think it's cool how the process brought out a lot of bright colors and patterns you couldn't see before, low key makes me want to get a tumbler someday

We do random rocks a lot in our tumblers....our whole family are constantly picking up rocks to put in the tumblers to see how they turn out....those turned out good 👍

10:40. I really like how the basalt looks, even though it didn't come out the best I still really just love how it looks with that texture, it really compliments the dark color of the stone.

I am impressed by your commitment to rock tumbling as well as mint chocolate chip ice cream

The final product for me is kind of nostalgic, just cause it looks like the polished rocks you could get in the grab bins of so so so many gift shops across the country, at least when I was younger. Much to the annoyance of my dad since my brother and I ALWAYS had to get a bag of those random rocks, to the point that I still have a box of them in my nightstand XD I love it, and so glad I came across your video.

Finding your own rocks is great. I spent a couple months working in Spain and my girlfriend picked up tons of rocks on the beaches. We used a Mohs hardness kit and separated them by hardness before tumbling them. We ended up with fantastic results, and it was a lot more fun than just using rocks that we ordered.

I got a tumble-polisher when I was a kid and just dug stones out of the garden to feed it. We're on glacial till so there was a huge variety of gorgeous reds and browns from all parts north. I made pendants and bracelets from some, filled the dishes around plant pots with the rest. The tumbler's long gone but I never broke the habit of picking up random rocks :)

When I first started tumbling, I grabbed random rocks from our driveway and from the road side! It was a good way to practice and some came out really nice. I love your quartz piece, the red ones are kind of like jasper! They are also pretty!!! Fun project!

I think it was a success. I really like the random textures and colors. I'm always bringing small pretty rocks home to my wife that I find while walking my dog. Thanks for sharing.

I feel like these would make really cool additions to aquariums.

i grew up in the 60s tumbling found rocks with my grandpa, and i still have a few of them. i actually didn't even realise some people bought special rocks to tumble until my 20s! and i LOVE how yours turned out!

I think this was a great experiment. They turned out a lot better than I thought they would. Wow, that slurry was crazy thick and muddy. I'm glad you did this. 👩‍🔬

Yup, it was a lot of fun. Random rocks give a random polish. You never know until you try. Now you know. Thanks for taking us along on the journey.

All of my rocks are stuff I’ve picked up on walks or from the North Shore. I don’t think I’d just go grab a bunch of rocks and dirt off a road and tumble though. Thanks for sharing and thanks for helping us learn.

Maybe I’m basic, but I think they turned out pretty :) Im not sure what I would use them for, but I think they would look really pretty embedded in clay as a showcase of local geological colors and textures On that note, I’m reminded of a time around 2012, this great art store in St Paul called Wet Paint carried a really nice watercolor brand where some of the paints were actual crushed up pigments (ie: the amethyst was crush amethyst). The brand made a local paint for every state. Minnesota’s we’re crushed up clay pipes and it was a beautiful, warm, earthy brown. But anyway, fun video. Thank you for sharing :)

Good to see I'm not alone in grabbing random rocks to see what happens. So much satisfaction in the little triumphs. I love the hidden gems you found in there. More than a few looked great, but I would definitely vote for the creamy yellow one. 😉

Bought my kid a tumbler kit for Christmas one year, didn't realize you had to keep it running for weeks 😂

Love these! I’m from Washington county missouri and we have a lot of calcite and quartz in the area. My personal favorite is red jasper!

I'm 76, former Infantry Marine with 28 months in combat, college grad, design engineer, and am teaching my 9 year old granddaughter how to "Tumble Rocks", as I bought her a Rock Tumbler for her 10th birthday. I loved your video, I'll have granddaughter watch it with me today, then we'll follow your instructions. She is wildly excited and frankly so am I, but I'm more excited by her excitement then anything of my own making. But..., ..., I can't wait to see our end result together. Thanks so much for making this video!

Me and my dad did this when I was very young. It turned out very similarly. Then we got special rocks to tumble but honestly as a kid I liked the random ones from the neighborhood better!

I really liked the speckled rocks you were showing at the end of the video! I know some didn’t get as shiny but I’m sure they feel really neat! I would say what types of rocks they are but I’m still pretty new to the hobby! Love to always be learning more though!

It’s the little imperfections that make a stone unique. I like the one with little green/blue pock marks in it.

Just stumbled upon your channel. As a child I had a massive rock collection. I liked the milky cortz out of all the ones you tumbled. However my personal favorite would be amethyst .

My toddler collects rocks, a trait in the family 😂. I think eventually he'll be tumbling his rocks to give them a gloss or shine. I believe the experiment was a success.

I've tumbled a number of random rocks and, like you, found that some turn out way better than expected and others not so much. I really like the epidote.

i think this experiment went well. you can tell from the first tumble which ones are basalt and which ones are quartz and etc. maybe you can pick out the ones that you know will look good and do that a couple times until you have enough to continue with. also honestly i love the satin finish on the basalt. it might not sparkle like the quartz but it feels so elegant.

My wife and I like picking up random pieces of gravel during our walks to admire their beauty. We practice catch and release, that is, we put the rocks back when we are done admiring them, especially if the site is serving a purpose like erosion control or a railroad bed. Glad to know others like randoms rocks too.

I would never have guessed the wnd result was just random rocks that had been tumbled. They all looked cool in their own way.

Hey there! So, I'm living out my childhood wishes through our daughter. For Christmas, we purchased her a NatGeo Platinum tumbler. I've made no secrets in letting her and my wife know that part of this gift was for me too. She turned 10 the 1st week of Feb and she know has about 6 pounds of rocks to tumble. We did two loads and sorted out ones to move on and ones to redo in different steps and just today, we started the step 4 polish. We are so excited to see how they turn out! I like that you did this experiment as I was wondering how this would play out. Thank you for this. Also, We are planning a trip to Minnesota early fall to see my brother. I hear North Shore of Lake Superior is a great place to rockhound. Can you share any good places to spend a few hours as I'm planning a couple days of exploration?

as someone who used to get polished rocks from tourist traps as a kid, i would always choose the wonky ones because they seemed to have their own interesting "story" 😂 i love how these randos turned out, i am partial to the red ones myself!

What a great video!!! I've been tumbling for probly around 11yrs and 2yrs ago my kids brought a couple handfuls of 1/4in or less rocks from the driveway, I tumbled them, and was actually shocked at how shiny and awesome they looked haha Edit: I said 1/5 I stead if 1/4

I’m just now discovering that rock tumbling is even a thing, but I love these. The colors are so pretty!

I was super impressed how they looked after the first tumble.

This reminds me of my mother, thanks for that. Due to various reasons and us kids supplying her with river rocks, she got a bit into rock tumbling. She didn't really get into the high polish end as I recall, mostly just cleaning them up to get the minerals to show. So you most definitely can tumble random rocks to reasonable success and I have the scent memory to prove it.

They turned out so pretty. Shows why you never judge the outside because something amazing is just beneath.

I love those rocks!!!! They came out very well for random. This has peaked my interest and enlightened me. I never knew it took that long and so much material. Thanks for doing this because I love random.❤

That's a beautiful mix of colors and patterns, it could be a great decoration for an aquarium or a potted plant.

Without a set image in your mind when making art, it is impossible to fail.

Oh boy, after the first step when she says "there are no real stunners" I was already absolutely enamoured with every single one

Her: a couple of these might have some potential Me: I LOVE EVERY ROCK EVER I LOVE THEM ALL!!!

I want to watch you tumble that entire bucket that would be cool and then color coordinate them and see what all a five pound bucket yields. Makes me want a five pound bucket of rocks. I’ve been preparing to get my first rock tumbler soon and I’m sooo excited!!

I am so glad I discovered your channel. I can watch you tumble rocks all day.❤

Love the milky quartz! All the rocks look great 😍

I really like the ones at 11:13 and especially 11:18. Great experiment though, you ought to do an experiment like this but with a bag or bucket of landscaping rocks.

Loved this!!! This is exactly the kinda stuff I wanna do with a rock tumbler!

Excellent, this process with the little grabble rocks is something that many people like me was wondering but that we never did, so you gave us that chance to see. Thank you!!

I really enjoyed watching you tumbling results. It is really neat how they turned out. I liked the black and white ones and several of the other ones .

Not bad at all for random, turned out pretty nice, showing you can find decent stuff pretty much anywhere thanks.

Thanks for doing this video. I always thought about doing this. Being new to tumbling I find all rocks fascinating and unique. So I don't have a favorite because everything is new and pretty 😄.

Love finding social media people from my state! Haven't started tumbling yet, but plan to start soon. I always assumed that at least some people use random rocks they find. Excited to see how they turn out!

Thank you do much tsking us step by step. My heart is happy

I have been picking up rocks since I was 5 years old. I have three brothers but I was the only one with rocks in my pockets. I often wonder what my poor mother did with them all,lol. I LOVE rocks, they’re fascinating geographic artifacts for me. I’m not certain that I have a favorite, they’re all favorites for one reason or another.

ewwie gewies...lol...i love your positivity!!! thanks for sharing the experiment, Ariel!

Great results from an experiment! I really liked the reddish one at the end of the video. I love when you get cool results from what you're tumbling. I'm still new at this and watch different videos to learn more. Thanks for this 😃

Ooohhh there's so many to choose from that I'd consider a "favorite"... maybe 🤔 🤔🤔 Hagstones? Or corals. I'm **really** good at finding both of those when I'm out picking. But the druzy Coral fossils are always my fav kinds of finds 😊

I love your videos. I thought I would thank some of my favourite KZfaqrs. I'm an armchair rockhound. I can't actually go myself because a stroke has left me partially disabled and affected my balance, but I do enjoy it vicariously through you and others.

I love this!! Thank you for making these videos. I've waited my whole life to get a rock tumbler and my husband is getting me one for my birthday!! I can't wait!

I really love rocks! Ive been rockhounding ever since i can remember! I know SOME types of rocks beacuse of Ariel! I love these videos and i really like this channel! Keep going like this! ❤❤❤

Another successful video. Always going the extra mile to do what no one else will. i.e. like the time you put all the grits and polish in one cycle just to see and actually they didn't come out that bad lol.

They all look pretty good, imo. I prefer to tumble glass but now I wanna try this.

I love the milky quartz, they are beautiful. I’m just getting into rock hounding and I’m hooked!!

Total success ❤I love that milky quartz. It’s so beautiful.

These would be gorgeous in a lot of crafts or in aquaria/terraria.

That “stone” color of the sludge upon opening the container is Really beautiful.

As someone who has been collecting random rocks for the past 5+ years, this is extremely encouraging to me! I was gifted a tumbler last Christmas and I am only now researching to finally tumble my EXTENSIVE rock collection. It ranges from obsidian, agate, petrified wood, quartz, and many more random rocks I find in gravel pits and job sites. Thank you for this!! I got excited just seeing the end result seeing all the beautiful patterns, colors, and shapes of just some random rocks :D Edit: I would say the experiment is a success!

The second one of your favorites was my favorite awesome video always wanted a rock tumbler really enjoy your channel

This has taught me I can indeed tumble random rocks, just don't put the dirt and teeny tiny rocks in the barrel 😂

You managed to make me watch the entire video, I'd call it a success. 😂

The experiment was awesome! We learned, so I count it as a success. “Research is thousands of no’s and that one amazing EUREKA!”

When I was a toddler and up, my parents would tumble random rocks I gave them. They'd let me keep giving them ones I found pretty, until it was full. Then I'd watch them set it up in the kitchen, and for a week+ the rumble of the tumbler would brrrr in the kitchen, and I would watch the little red barrel spin and slosh once in awhile in anticipation. When the day would come to open it up, i'd help them take out the rocks and clean them... and pick out my favorites. They'd have me pick out a mommy, and daddy rock for them every time too and they'd keep their own little collection. There was some cool looking ones if I can remember correctly. I think we had to panic move on a budget out of that house, so I doubt the rocks came with us if I remember correctly. I don't recall the rock legacy moving houses with us so yeah... but I am sure they're in that house's yard somewhere... with their little history in them.. unless the new house owner did major yard reconstruction, then they're probably scattered around the world or in some sort of dump site lol...

The final product looks a lot like the rocks I find in the river which... is really not at all surprising since the river basically tumbles random rocks.

Success! They're all unique.

I didn't know it took so many weeks to polish rocks. It makes me appreciate the polished rocks I have more. My 3 year old son loves playing with them.

IMHO the experiment was a success as even the very plain, dull finish rocks each had it's own personality. In some ways I prefer them to some of the garish highly polished rocks.

How did your family handle the cold last week? I liked the random rock tumble.

I havent really been into rocks i'm more of a "flip a rock to find a bug" person but I have always wondered this exact thing. Always wanted a tumbler but never got around to getting one Edit: Thank you for making this video. This question had been hanging around my mind for almost 15 years. Now I know!

I think they came out lovely. Unique

keep up the good work! very satisfying video

Haha aw man...NO BORAX until state 3 at least....it just a waste of borax is all, ya it helps throughout but it's not needed till stage 3

SiliCON not siliCONE 🤣

To be honest, I really liked the random rocks. I thought it was a good experiment and I was happy to see it. I don’t know anything about rocks, but all of them definitely looked a lot better with just a little shine. It was neat to see how this is done.

That epidote was pretty cool. I like the difference of the high polish with the satin look. My favorite rocks right now are Flower stones I find in my area.

There ya go 😊. Also all the other reasons 😉. Great watching, I'm learning. Been pounding the cascades from border down to cal. For 50 years and I wish now I'd been paying more attention to the shiny Rock's along the way. There's a few things I think I need to look at again if I can get There's!🙂🙂 Running about 25 pounds of rollers in tumblers More Rock's!!! Hahaha..You know! Never coveted anything in my life until I looked into a polished agate and realized the significance of time and the ramifications of such. A pleasure seeing you smile Mrs Ariel

Thanks for this. I am just starting and have a double batch in the tumbler in grit one. Rocks I collected with my wife at a day at the beach, so good head start.

Excellent work!

I tumble rocks that initially were purchased as landscape materials. I did get a lot of pretty finished rocks that I am using to make jewelry including jasper, carnelian, and many quartz. Also they are often smooth enough to skip the first grit tumble. I use a dremel tool to smooth out imperfections and sand to a nice polish.

honestly really into how all of the stones turned out, I've been asking myself this question for so many years but never had a tumbler. Thank you!

I think anything that’s an experiment is a success! You learned and observed new things :) As to the basalt, we didn’t expect much, they still look nice and a few ended up shinier than I’d anticipated. My biggest concern was the varying hardnesses, but they fared pretty well! I just found your channel and I’m so excited to see what kind of content you’ve got. I am also a rock lover and I’ll watch other people do what I do because I can’t get enough. ROCKS RULE. And yes, I know that “rock” isn’t the correct term, that we have minerals, fossils and gemstones but whatever, I love them all! I love rocks, love them in a box, with a Fox eating lox.

Thank you for doing this. I was curious about this myself. I do think that the rocks came out cool!

I love that KZfaq can be a home for nerds that love things like rocks. How wholesome.

Glad I found your channel. I’ve collected rocks for so many years and have always wanted to get into polishing them. I think my favorite might be that smaller black one you showed towards the end, with the white lines throughout!

Experiment was obviously a success! We all learned something from it, and no matter what we learned, as long as we learned something, that's a success regardless of what the results were.

Every experiment is a success. You don't know before and you do know after. SUCCESS!

I actually really like how these turned out

Very cool video and I worked amazingly well. I decided to get myself a tumbler to polish my beach and lake area pick ups. I hope they will become stunners. Thnxs for sharing this vid.

When I was little, I realized some rocks were actually just concrete.