Rough opal can be risky business - The outcome is incredible
Ouch i'm justin and this is black opal direct my family have been teaching and exploring opal since 1961. click the subscribe button and enjoy as we dive into the best gem in the world black opal g'day and welcome to black opal direct my name is justin well this week we are working on a massive knobby opal really really big piece and it has a very thick color bar going through it now i can see on the outside that there's got inclusion so i am hoping to praying to the opal gods that actually something inside is clean and not full of sand which i've experienced a lot of lately and you've seen it and we're gonna expose it so it's gonna be a wild ride this one i promise you let's get on the wheel and get to it well this massive piece just really has some nice color all the way around it and you can see it's still following through on this side but this big sand blob on top may cause us a lot of havoc there is also a little bit of a crack there that i reckon will disappear the further i go in so my hope is that this gets darker inside and hopefully it faces nicely on the top but this is a really big stone so we have massive chances massive potential and uh still a lot of risk let's get that wheel going let's get some water going on the wheel so i'm just going to take it around this side where i can't actually see into the piece yet you can see there's a light blue sort of color bar below the better color which is not something i'm going to concentrate on very much wow that sand is really not nice really not nice bad so we are being beaten up by sand once again beaten to a fault let's see it's really oh come on give me a break this sand is my worst nightmare a lot of color bar there and that sand is just ridiculous what is it about me and sand at the moment i'm like a sand magnet all right well you can see that there is some kind of form of color bar there that i've set up around the edges all cleaned up around the edges so now we're going to take all of this off and this is the big telltale to see whether actually something's worthwhile coming out of it or not and i'm going in oh so showing up some color there now in the top oh nice color okay oh boy so there's still sand here and i'm gonna need to get let's have a quick look we've got one sand spot here we've got color bar still sitting there and we've got sand on top this big sand blob i could probably gouge into and it probably go a fair way down um but that has to come out because that's just not on well actually that's not bad it's actually just hit the bottom there so a little bit further and hopefully that sand should be out i'm guessing yep looking pretty good that one this one here goes in quite deep so i may have a stone around here and if that's the case that would be really cool so we'll just keep going cleaning it up seeing what what we can get out of it i'm liking the color here the most that's the prettiest color it's also where the sand is all mixed up wowzers all right well a bit of a dilemma really good pattern up here really good pattern further down what do i do does this good pattern go in underneath here or do i just go for a nice high domed beautiful stone right there slice these corners off and see what i can get this sand spot here still going in i gouge into it you can see yeah it goes in pretty deep so that's going to take away a fair bit of dome from anything that i can salvage from here so i think we're going to slice it through that sand spot there and through there hmm and go for a nice stain see if i can get this closer and have a closer look so it doesn't really show up on the camera but we've got layers of opal here this here this here this here is all one layer that i think goes into the piece on an angle like this and then the color good color sits on top and then there's good color below now the ultimate goal would be to slice that through slice that off right here about about there don't know if i'm good enough to be able to do that and if i do this which is pretty much black opal right now will probably turn to a lighter opal what to do what to do hmm and also another question is how clean is that color bar below alright well i'm gonna go back out take it on the final wheel and just have a go at just taking out that sand here and seeing how good the color is below because if i'm gonna slice it anyway it doesn't really matter if i can get that go down past the hazy layer and see what kind of stone is below then we'll get a really good idea about whether we should go down on it or not okay so not bad not bad color but i think what i'm going to do is i'm going to slice it slice that little slither off the top go for a stone here and then see what's below now this is a big risk really big risk but hey you only live once so i think i have to give it a go yeah slicing a piece off the top like this is so risky because it's so thin the blade can break the opal so easily and i also risk the fact that there may be no extra color down below or even inclusions um oh yes oh my goodness oh that worked out oh my goodness that worked out my risk has paid off i'm so happy so happy oh wow check out this you gotta see you gotta see this is ridiculous so we had that bit on the top and uh sat there so i sliced that off as you can see and just below it look at the pattern look at it that is magnificent and that's what i was hoping for so now we can work on taking this down a little bit further around here and here and see if that pattern gets any bigger if not we still got a stone right there which is magnificent and i am stoked i'm stoked oh it worked out i can't believe it okie dokie so i might just shape this guy up a little bit see what we get out of that so that's a nice little crystal now so we didn't waste anything on the top to see what was below happy about that oh yeah there we go it's nice crystal and the color is actually even better from the back so that'll probably be a double-sided stone very pretty there we go very nice and now let's work on this beauty how about we come in closer to view this thing being rubbed up because it's worthy totally worthy oh yeah love it when a plan comes together all right that's nice uh what i'm gonna do because of the pattern changes i'm gonna slice it again through there and slice it through there and go for the biggest stone i can right there which is the money the breadwinner yes all right i'll quickly slice it very quickly and then get back to you on the wheel and we'll start shaping it up oh i'm excited so you want to hear the good news or the better news now the good news is i have sliced it all off we will get one stone out of there on the corner and we will get one stone out of there on that corner but the extra awesome news is where this pattern is starting to go a little bit change up from the beautiful pattern inside you can see underneath showing up some really nice pattern so uh that is obviously i think joining up to the better pattern so if i was to rub that down that side i'm probably going to find that that pattern is starting going to start to get better again so let's have a little quick look and see whether it's damp dance worthy oh that's gorgeous gorgeous all right i'm so so happy about this one oh yeah let's bring it back to there so that we can work on this wheel because we've got a lot of rough to take off the back so let's rub that down yes i am pushing quite hard right now just to get all that potch off the back we don't really need yeah magnificent magnificent give this one a little bit of a push too pushing a shove and this one i might bring it in a little bit that sand spot a potch there there's sand here and here that's in the color so it's not really doing the stone any favors get rid of the potch off the back there we go so that actually nicer color underneath as well so we're going to take that down obviously to the better color and we'll get a nice stone out of there very pretty stone out of there just give that quick shape all right now we can come back to this wheel turn the water on and then we start shaping i love it when a plan works out this is so good so good oh yeah oh yeah bring it on this is what it's all about when an opal works out it really works out and i am so happy about this can you tell a little bit excited just a little bit excited roll that dome there we go beautiful gem right there let's put that one away this one you can shape up a little bit roll that edge so we get a dome a little still too much watch on the back it's a nice little drop shape there gotta be happy with that it's quite nice beautiful and the money winner the breadwinner beautiful beautiful so we do take it in a little bit because there is some some lighter color lighter pattern and color sitting there so uh it doesn't really need to be there it won't do any justice on the stone so let's bring it in beautiful color this is what it's all about through so check it out what a beauty what a beauty gorgeous stone what a gorgeous stain all right let's have a closer look at it can you believe it oh what amazing piece what an amazing stone it comes out 11 and a half carats right now so i'm thinking a nine carat gem beautiful color i am so happy i i was thinking that there might be some kind of a little beautiful gem kernel in the center but i tell you what that has just knocked my socks off and the other three stones are quite nice too it was good that i sliced that little crystal off the top got to save it rather than grinding it away because there was just enough bar there to do it the other two rubs are quite nice there's probably another really five hundred to a thousand dollars worth there but this main piece is an absolute winner and i am stoked so let's get into it and start cutting those stones i love it when a plan comes together it makes everything all worthwhile and sharing it with you really makes it special when a beautiful gem like this comes out it makes me happy and i hope it makes you happy too let me know in the comments how you felt about this journey from the rough to where it is now did it stress you out did it give you anxiety did it make you feel relaxed i'd love to know i do know that some of you fall asleep to my videos which i'm not sure how to take it's showtime well wasn't that a fun stone to cut i really enjoyed it and i hope you did too and this beautiful 1.60 carat crystal opal was the piece i sliced right off the top and it's worth around about the 400 so it was really worthwhile doing that slice really happy with that i also ended up polishing the back because the color was better on the back than the front this gem ended up being 2.16 carats and it does just make it into the black opal category and i valued it at around about 600 very pretty little ring stone this little odd drop shape turned out quite nice at a 0.82 carat it just made it into the black opal category as well for 300 and the last but not least this black opal turned out to be 7.35 carats a little bit smaller than i had imagined but i took a fair bit off the back to make it quite balanced but that color is outrageous i love it it's an n4 and it's got a brightness of four with the beautiful green and blue play of color that has color on color an amazing gem turning out to be around about the ten thousand dollars so all up i am super super excited well that was one of the most awesome adventures i've had in a while thank you for watching this one i'm really happy with it i hope you are too and i will see you next week i hope you didn't think that was it the things i do to get a rise
2021-08-17 13:50
