Ethopian opal is known to be hard to cut, breaks easy, and most of the times forms cracks when it dries out. If you cut a cabochon to sell youll have to let it dry for a long time before you know if you have to do a repolish or cutting.
I just recently carved a little one and put it away after I was done, perfect in my eyes. Checked on it later and two pieces fell off the sides and one face was a little jagged like a worn tooth. What can I do to prevent it? Just hope?
So I have heard a few options for this. The most popular is to make sure it doesn't dry too fast. Ethiopian opal has a much higher water content than all the Australian opal and the drying (water liquid going to gas) causes too much expansion within the opal causing it to fracture. Sometimes there is nothing you can do but definitely try to dry it as slow as possible. I have some ideas to set up a scientific test to record this for the channel in the future.
@@ButtSauce666 that's a shame mate, I heard to put it on a dobstick with glue. In going to order a couple welo Stones for fun to experiment with. See how the stone behaves when it drycut. In my opinion its absorbs cause its hydrophene and at the same time cause of the friction heat within the stone wants to realese moist. So maybe when there is no water it doesn't give that reaction within the opal its self. Or cool it down Just a little bit but so that the opal wont absorb to much water. But be carefull you dont make the stone to hot. Ill let ya know when i order some
Sorry RU-vid hide this comment for some reason. It is very delicate in comparison to any Australian opal that is for sure. Make is very prone to chipping or even fracturing. Will change the strategy for the next one.
I have a feeling that opal has been smoked just my opinion though (edit) got halfway through and you said it yep I agree fire smoked would explain the colour change and the cracks . all good info dude , great vid too thanks Roy .
Thanks Mark. Yeah I'm with you on the smoked part. I have left it alone in a bag and a little stain has formed under it. Looks like some of the smoke effect is leeching out.
@@RoysRocks What I know about opal I could right on the back of a stamp lol but literally watched a vid a few weeks or so ago about smoking opals , its so easy to pick things up when its something your interested in and I have become a real opal vid addict these last 6 months or so with the current climate , I truly intend to be grinding some poch in the very near future , I could see this becoming a problem all be it a good one , keep the vids coming Roy and thanks for your time and effort , let rainbow out man.
Well keep in touch and is love to see where you go with your prentice opal carving future. Pics can't be shared easily on RU-vid but feel free to add me on Facebook if you have one.
Sure looks like the Shewa opals they sell on opal auctions (chocolatey brown with that whitish edge). They need to stay wet. That would explain the mineral oil and cracking. That stuff hates to stay together but looks nice in jars of liquids.
I think you are on the money. I really wish that it was sent in water rather than oil. I can understand that oil is easier and longer lasting but the stuff is just no fun to work with especially when it gets tacky.
Yeah I'm glad people voted for it and I bought it because it was unusual. Turned out very strange indeed. Will check back in on it in a few weeks time.
This is good info to look out for. So far everything I've bought has been super cheap little parcels from Amazon(80-100 ct for 10$) & they've been hit & miss, but what do you expect for the price. I keep looking through opal auctions..... I want to have better gear than sandpaper & more experience working it before I spend a lot of money on small amounts of opal. Thanks as always for what you do!
dafuq you mean it was "stored with oil"? if you had it soaking in oil you're the one that treated it bro. also... the logic that it's treated for color but it's light colored on the outside.... lemme ask... how did they get it in just the center? also... did you say heat treating opal experiments? 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
I think you need to learn a lot more about opal based on your comment. You've got a lot to discover. The sellers commonly store these in oil to prevent them drying out and cracking. How they get oil in the center is easy, ethiopian opal is made up of essentially little tubes. They can suck in anything they are stored in. Heat treating opal is very common, so is smoke treating, so is oil treating, so is acid treating.
Just finished reading through the rest of the comments to see if anyone had any observations about the color bar vs. the showing face or the treatment. Great observations & info from them too! Did the mineral oil or diamond dop sticks work better than water? Did you ever see this happen with the color bar again? I just found one on a piece I'm getting ready to set up. It is the first time I've seen a color bar in ethiopian. So far, the stones with color have been an all over & through color.
Ah this one was just me messing around and taking a punt on something new. I this this one fully blew up sadly but I have non oiled stuff like this now so will be diving back in.
I feel that they are indeed more fragile, and likely crack more easily, because of the mining process involved. but I am probably wrong. anyway, all opals crack in the mining and handling and shipping (if done poorly). on a big crystal pieces I would be amazed if it didnt have some cracks. luckily, you can make more, smaller stones! you have to wonder if shipping it in oil was done purposefully to hide any small cracks within?
I've learnt a lot since this video and this opal is the type that is meant to stay in water. It was worth a try to carve but I avoid this stuff now and stick to better Ethiopian rough. Some on the channel real soon.
is that a non hydraphane opal.. ? im guessing it is because you recieved it in oil...all non hydraphane opal will craze when dried... such a waste... go for some high quality hydraphane and you will fall in love again with ethiopian opals again..
Yeah I think so. I have some much better stuff now thats to a viewer and it has been cut and dried successfully. Still not my favourite material but it does have some insane brightness and colour patterns for very reasonable prices.
It is tricky but I have gotten the hang of it now with a few stones that haven't exploded if you check a recent Ethiopian cut. This one was definitely clogged up with oil but knowing and avoiding that really helps.
Yeah everyone calls it different things. This one was meant to stay in oil but some of us have gotten those to dry as well but it is much more difficult. I'll have videos on it in the future.
I'll put them here as well: 0:00 Looking at the rough 3:57 Carving part 1 4:48 Re-examining discussion 1 10:24 Cutting part 2 14:10 Re-examining discussion 2 19:27 Cutting part 3 21:06 Final results
I watched it all. Shattering to all, I think, but not entirely unexpected by any of us. I have seen it happen on a couple of channels, but your new light has shown the cracking really well. Reminds me of those shattered glass vases that you can buy. I appreciate that you are learning. All the BETTER. It gives us a chance to experience it all along the way. A lot of channels concentrate on one area, so we don't really see it all. It is a great way to learn. 👏👍
Yeah I think it is a common occurrence with Ethiopian. I expected the outcome but still a little disappointing. Either way it opens up the door to try a few experiments and not be disappointed with destroying the piece. This channel wont be concentrating on one single type or origin of opal thats for sure. Having said that... back to Aussie for a few videos I think. I miss it already.
@@RoysRocks I really don't think that any countries have what we have here. Lots of nice ones, but ours............. Who could compete? Really. We got lucky in the way it gets created. And, nature did it. How good is that!!!!!!!
Ah not this old one. Such a sad one but good learning I guess. Now managing to do Ethiopian opal with no problems and a much bigger fan of the material.
Being a hydraphane opal you can't afford to let it dry out too much. It is too unstable and prone to cracking no matter what you do. It also demonstrates why they store the rough in mineral oil.
I have a few of us testing some new methods I've come up with and the results are surprisingly effective. Seems they are not as unstable as initially thought if they are process correctly through the drying process.
@@RoysRocks Give me a yell if you find a trader of good Wello. Every time I buy Ethiopian it is either severely crazed or eaten by inclusions. They do clean up nicely but I don’t like storing it in water or oil. Both make them go opaque.
Nice video! Chill music too lol I've been seeing alot about altering opal with treatments. Buuuut, it's only a few mil deep. You can turn a white one black with stunning fire in them.
Yeah this one has me intrigued. I did have suspicions about this one in particular (good chance it isn't Welo and is Shewa instead). I think the other big boy will be much better.
This Ethiopian opal is not really a "colour bar" and more of a spread colour. It is also the oil type so has reacted terribly with water and is now fully crackled and basically shattered all throughout. It's all learning and now I avoid oil completely. Buy rough dry or in water, never oil. Results are much better.
I used to think "what do people do in Australia, if they live far away from all the world class surf spots? Now I see there's more interesting things in Oz than just animals, and great waves. I wanna visit even more now than ever
Nice vid Roy Mate..try the wooden dowl tips impregnated with the the diamond grit paste from 300 up to 12 00 or 3000 Then finish off with cerium oxide The diamond grit goes into the Ethiopian opal seeing that Ethiopian opal absorbs..so with this method you actually strengthening the opal with the paste.. I tried this method (my method) And man it works..the pieces I did months ago are in super state not one crack or grazing Let me know
Not smoked! This type won't budge for smoke or dye. This are collection type pieces also called non-hydrophane( water repelling) type. The ones that are cut are the hydrophane types(water loving) types. They don't dry out and craze cos they can even absorb moisture from the air. They just have to be cut and dried carefully then they are set "forever".
@@RoysRocks i have never seen that kind of hydrophane, with phantom egg and all. Hydrophane will absorb water and would become transparent but I don't see any change in this one. check my website which has both hydrophane and non-hydrophane. For me i can tell one from the other by just looking at it, even if both are dry. my eyes are used to them both. Besides, I'm a supplier from the source, Ethiopia. Even with the hydrophane there are some variations depending on which mine it comes from. There are about 28 active mines some producing both hydrophane and non-hydrophane. Both quality and characteristics vary from mine to mine. seven-reources.com
It is definitely Ethiopian opal. Just most likely treated. But recently I have been carving better quality pieces and it has been much more fun and successful.
Could be. Once this type of opal hits water and then gets left to dry the cracks are going to take over... wish I knew that before this one but good example.
