How To Cut And Polish Ethiopian Opal? Gem Ethiopian Opal Carving And Polish. 

Great piece Roy, thanks for the video.

أجمل احجار الاوبال هو الابيض الناري

Awesome stone, so fun to see how it turned out (beautiful!)!

Roy You outdone yourself once again Meistro👏🏽

That was really cool watching it hydrate 😊😊😊 Awesome video, thanks for sharing

🎉 yaay! made my night! Really love these Ethiopian opals and you did a great job! Thanks Roy for sharing 🙏

Turned out great...I'm a huge fan of freeform shapes...

That was really neat watching the stone turn clear. Truly fascinating.

opal gems are very beautiful, I like men with beautiful colors.

#1 tip, try to take off as much host as you can before wetting to minimize cracking which is exactly what you did, great job! I really like Welo, it’s hard to beat for the money.

Hi there Roy. Beautiful job on the free form Sir. I love how you preserved the natural lines and curves just as Mother Nature intended. I cut on my CabKing most often, but the freeform definitely brings out more color play and liveliness in the stone. Simply stunning. I've cut hundreds of Welo cabs and absolutely love the stuff. Oh btw, I have a great tip for you which not many reading this may know as I only figured it out purely by chance. You can cut your drying time for Welo in 1/2 by simply placing it in your front jeans pocket. The cotton from your pocket combined with the moist heat from your leg makes for a super stable temperature controlled wicking environment. Gems that would normally take 2-3 days to dry left out are done in a day. Plus you can haul it out anytime (lol), inspect it as it cures and also have the extra added bonus of having a rainbow in your pocket. It does wonders for your mental health. I mean who can't help but smile inside whenever they see a rainbow. Hope that helps 😉 Long may your big jib draw. Dougie in Newfoundland

Awesome I knew it would be a killer piece when I sent them to you. Risky leaving it out to open air dry, but it was your birthday present to do with as you pleased lol. Yeah told ya the 50k grit was an excellent finish on the Ethiopian, just need to take your time really since not using a liquid polish. You really want to ensure the stages get done properly since not hiding anything with the cerium or etc. All in all super excited for ya. That's an amazing piece.

Really nice piece, and glad it did'nt crack/craze after drying post 600 😊 After 24 hours, that semi transparent colour on colour was absolutely amazing ❤️

Finally! A start to finish tutorial on Welo Opal! This cleared up so many questions. Just one question.. instead of using the Nova's up to 50K, would going to 3k or 5k Nova's and Cerium Oxide provide similar results and protect against water in the future? Thank you Roy 💯💯💯!!!

Finished viewing video. Very pretty stone. I just hope that people that buy jewellery made of it are made aware of its quirks. I can imagine someone going right off if they didn't know.... inevitably going to happen somewhere! Have a great day everyone. Thank for a really interesting video.

Hi Roy I do like watching your shows lol

"Volcanic" opal is special, and that is usually said like a curse, instead of a blessing. For the price, quite nice.

I’m glad the 50,000 works great with Ethiopian (And boulder) opal. I’ve found recently through experience that the 50,000 nova works great on coober pedy opal as well. Some lightning ridge material or very strong coober pedy might need a swap to cerium though but not all opal needs the same treatment as I’ve found. It’s nice to have both methods under your belt and see which one the opal favors.

You should try some Shewa Ethiopian Opal, Its fun to purchase because sometimes if your lucky you make come a cross some non- hydrophane Black or Chocolate opal and this material can be just as stable as Australian opal and the best part is this material also produces honeycomb patterns and there's not a lot of risk because this material is not terribly expensive and if you get lucky and you get a non hydrophane peace it can be worth quite a bit, So it's a fun Gamble.😊

You should be wearing gloves. I’ve gotten rashes from Ethiopian dirt. Cleaning them of excess dirt is the first order of business when a new parcel arrives! Beautiful piece. Great job carving. Many thanks for sharing. I love your videos!!!😊

I'm only a third in but those color fingers look like possible honey comb!

Cool

Watching this in tuscon, finally! Gonna go bug Justin tomorrow and get his input on some of my stones. I want his valuation so I can get a baseline. I'm basically clueless on the values of opals. I don't want to rip anyone off if I sell them but I also don't want to leave too much on the table either. It is a very beautiful stone. Love all the colors. I hope it stays crack free.

I’ve collected near 50 lbs of welo and Shewa over the past 7 years. Living originally in a moderate rain forest, Shewa cracked on its own. Now I live in high desert and nothing cracks…ever!

Looks awesome Roy!! Most of the opal I cut is this type of Welo. I like it, it is lighter and softer and some pieces are harder to get the small flat areas rounded on the flat lap. Carving tends to be easier with the softer pieces. I have only had one shatter on me and it was after it popped off the dob stick and reheated it a bit too much lol. I just put them on a counter and let them dry and never had one crack. Ethiopian chocolate opal is extremely hard to cut a stone with no cracks. I just finished one and will share on Facebook. That 4.3ct Mexican opal in shared had a crack and now have 3 pieces one is still 2.6ct and will attempt to cut that one. Mexican opal is also prone to cracking.😢😢 Thanks for sharing, this is a great freeform and would be great for wire wrapping.👍👍😁

Some of the more stable rough can cut very nice gems just as this one did. Great video 2x👍 I have a couple of Ethiopian opals with "egg" like inclusions. You need to keep the wet of bit just flake off.

Oh wow. I am fascinated by the way the water affects the opal. Go out and flash your opal on a wet day? I'd be too scared to wear it. I'd forget and have a shower wearing it. The drying out would drive me sane!!! LOL.

I looked at a website that sells opal and they sell opals like that by the kg bag. That website had a video about cleaning that opal with pliers. They just crushed the dirt, I thought it was a spoof at first.

Is there a way to treat welo after polishing to stabilise it and stop absorbtion etc

Excellent workmanship! I have cut Ethiopian opals several times and all of them always crack and break into multiple pieces. Just getting them wet with water already cracks them I can't even keep them wet the whole time I'm cutting them. And when it dries, it turns completely white and the same color never comes back... Where's the trick to make it perfect without cracking like yours?

Who makes the pen light? where can I purchase one? Thank you for the great video.

That is the arkenstone from the hobbit. Do you need to leave a side flat no matter what for mounting?

Any tips for buying Ethiopian opal rough? Thanks

Will it absorb the oils from your skin as well?

What grit were you using on the dry sintered bit?

Great video. New to your channel. Can you link the gem light you used in this video?

Very nice free-form opal! Have you tried to cut any of the non-hydrophane Ethiopian opal yet?

Roy can you tell me where to buy this sintered-diamond-burr-10-piece-kit set since when I want to check out it says you don't ship to my location (message when I try to pay with Paypal)

Where do we get that penlight?

Do you sell those so I can cut and polish some let me know I want to buy some ?

If you get the honey comb what is the price per kt??

Wo bitte hast du die verschiedenen dremmel tools mit zb.5000 grit.......gekaft LG.BERND

why didnt it crack?