Rookie here☺

[ZR2guy]

Hello all. I have metal detected for 15+years and have been a member here for a long time. Anyway, my wife has always been into the rock hunting, not metal detecting. We are both big time novice rock hunters. She is interested in the tumbling/polishing thing as well. She has bought some books and during this pandemic, I picked up 3 Lortone tumblers from the internet. I have needed one forever anyway to clean my clad.
We live in southwest Ohio. We have hunted the rivers/creeks in this area off and on when the water is low. We really dont know what we are looking at most of the time when hunting, we just pick and pull by what looks interesting to our eyes. Any advice for us? Thanks😊

 

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[DDancer]

Try picking up a local Rock and Mineral or Rock and Gem guide for your area. That'll give ya the best info on what your looking for and looking at. As to polishing identify materials of similar hardness that you want to tumble and give it a go following the instructions for your tumbler. Lots of other tips on the net, and a few if you search the archives here, on tumbling and materials. I have a Lortone myself and have used it for both clad *keep the pennies out of the silver* and rocks. Great little tumbler *mines just a small two bucket*. Let us see what you come up with if ya dont mind

 

[gunsil]

You should join a local gem and mineral club. They have the local knowledge and usually have full lapidary equipment for the members to learn to cut and polish stones on. Here are a few near you:
Cincinnati Mineral Society, Cincinnati

Columbus Rock & Mineral Society, Columbus

Dayton Gem & Mineral Society, Inc., Dayton

Greater Cincinnati Lapidary & Faceting Society

Google them up and check a couple out, rock nerds love to share knowledge and I think if you and your Mrs like rocks you will really enjoy learning from locals.