Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

I bought a National Geographic rock tumbler for my kid. The tumbler only came with enough grit for one batch, so I also bought this. When the first batch was done, I was a little disappointed. I had a tumbler when I was a kid and I remember the rocks having a glassy finish. These did not. They looked like river rocks. So I read the directions again and saw that they recommend adding some mineral oil to give them a shine. I did and it helped a little. They had a little shine. About like a mat finish. But they were not glossy at all. I did another batch with similar results. So then I did some research and figured out the final step was the problem. What they give you is a finer grit for stage four, but it's not really a polish. Most websites I found recommended aluminum oxide for the final stage, so I ordered some on Amazon. I re-tumbled the previous batch with the aluminum oxide, and the difference was night and day on some of the rocks (a few were too porous to really shine up.) Then I did another batch using the first three stages of this grit, followed by aluminum oxide for the final stage. The results were the same. The rocks that could be polished looked like glass. A couple rocks again were too porous. So if you buy this, your rocks will look about like river rocks – not glossy. I would recommend doing some research and finding a better kit. Personally, I'll use the first three stages until I run out, but use aluminum oxide for the final step.