Polishing Sea Glass- Good or Bad Idea?

by Richard Allen
(Sacramento, CA USA)

I have a few pieces of light green and brown sea glass that I collected as a child while living on Kodiak Island, AK.

As I got older and had amassed quite a nice rock collection, I decided to tumble many of my finds.

So, in my youthful ignorance, I tossed the sea glass in too (I think the frosting looks terrible).

They game out looking smooth and perfectly clear. They are so much more beautiful this way, and am hoping to head to the SF Bay Area soon to look for more colors to polish.

If the green and brown look so nice polished, I just imagine how beautiful other colors may turn out.

Now, I really don't care about value of my stones/sea glass, but I was just wondering if polishing like this was frowned upon by collectors or if it reduces the value at all.

It improves the aesthetics greatly in my personal opinon, but that doesn't mean others think the same way. Anyway, I was just curious.

Thank you for your time!