RockTumbler.com
Where you can learn about rock tumbling from experts.
| Winner of the 2025 Worldwide Rock Tumbling Contest |
We are happy to report that one of our staff members, Adam Rittenhouse, was the 2025 winner of the Worldwide Rock Tumbling Contest hosted by Feather River Lapidary & Mineral Society in Oroville, California.
Over 100 contestants from the United States, Canada, and Australia tumbled Picture Jasper collected from Craig Gulch, Owyhee Mountains, Oregon, and submitted their five best stones to the judges. They awarded Adam first place. Congratulations, Adam!!
Over 100 contestants from the United States, Canada, and Australia tumbled Picture Jasper collected from Craig Gulch, Owyhee Mountains, Oregon, and submitted their five best stones to the judges. They awarded Adam first place. Congratulations, Adam!!
Most visitors to our website are here to read articles in our Rock Tumbling Library, where we have over 100 articles written by our staff. There you can learn about how to select a rock tumbler, how to select stones for tumbling, how to produce tumbled stones with a great polish, and how to repair and maintain your tumbler. You can shop with confidence here because every day, we are using the products that we sell.
The day we launched this website, we started writing articles to help you be successful. We firmly believe that the more you know about rocks, tumblers, and the tumbling process, the more successful you will be at making nice tumbled stones.
Who Are We?
Adam Rittenhouse joined our team in 2019. Since then, he has been working every day to master the art of rock tumbling. At any given time, he has several rock tumblers running at our office and a couple running at his home.
Adam is constantly experimenting with different techniques and different types of rocks to learn what yields the nicest stones and the brightest polish. He diligently documents his work by recording the methods he uses for every step of every barrel of rocks.
His goal is to produce rock tumbling recipes that you, our customer, can use to successfully polish the tumbling roughs that you buy from us. If he can't make those rocks shine, then we don't sell them.
Adam photographs the rocks that we sell before and after polishing. He wants to show you proof that they can be successfully polished, and he shares the methods that he used to polish the rocks. He wants to help you build your rock tumbling skills and knowledge.
Much of his career has been spent studying the physical properties of rocks and minerals and how those properties make them suitable for industrial use. He is the primary author of Geology.com and one of the world's most widely read authors on the topics of rocks, minerals and gems. His extensive knowledge of rocks, minerals and gems has been used to develop many of the rock tumbling methods that appear on this website.
He was recently featured in an alumni profile published by the Gemological Institute of America and in a success story published on the Google Adsense website.
Hobart's father bought him a Thumler's A-R2 rock tumbler as a Christmas gift over fifty years ago because he was fascinated with rocks. His father didn't know that his gift would result in the launch of a family business operated by his children and grandchildren.
That original rock tumbler, from fifty years ago, is still used today to test the tumbling roughs sold on this website. Surprisingly, Thumler's Tumblers still manufactures an identical A-R2 tumbler and still supplies all of the replacement parts. Their tumblers are made to last, and that is why they are sold on this website.
This photo shows the rock tumblers that we use to test every type of rough that we offer for sale. We also use these machines to develop the rock tumbling recipes that we publish for customer use. If we are not able to get good results with the rough, the supplies, and the tumblers that we sell, we will not sell them to you.
Why You Should Buy From Us
#1 We don't sell boomerangs: We have decades of experience using all of the equipment and supplies that we sell. Our product descriptions and articles are written from years of experience. We have instructions on this website that share how we use the products that we sell because we want you to be successful. We are not in the boomerang business. That means that we do not sell products that perform poorly because you will want to return them. We sell products that we have tested and are willing to use ourselves.
#2 We don't sell junkite: Before we sell anything as "tumbling rough" we tumble a few batches ourselves to determine if it can be used to produce nice tumbled stones. We then photograph the results to show you what it will look like as tumbled stones. If we decide to sell it we then develop two step-by-step "recipes" that you can use for successful polishing in a rotary rock tumbler or a vibratory rock tumbler. We want you to be comfortable and successful with what you buy from us.
#3 We know rocks and we know rock tumblers: When you buy something from this website, you are buying from people who have deep knowledge about rocks and who have been using rock tumblers for a long time. We know how to run them, how to fix them and how to keep them running well year after year. So, if you buy a rock tumbler or supplies from us and have questions about about them, you will have easy access to someone who knows how to help.
#4 Read what our customers have to say: We invite you to read what our customers have to say about the service that we provide and the products that we sell. You can read unedited reviews left by thousands of customers here. Thank you!
We are one of the internet's favorite vendors of tumbled stones. We sell tumbled stone mixtures and individual varieties of tumbled stones sourced from countries throughout the world.