Learn how to cut and polish opals with buying expensive cutting machines, simply and easily. You won't believe the process is this easy and inexpensive www.blackopaldirect.com
Thank you for posting this video Justin! I have been making simple jewelry for a little while now, probably 4 years. I mostly do bead work necklaces bracelets earrings and stuff like that. I'm self-taught and it's just easy stuff but it's a fun hobby. After I saw this video, I got so inspired that I went to a local gem shop and bought some low grade mostly blue potch, Australian opal with a few flashes of color. Then I bought a small cheap polishing machine and all the supplies I would need to do my own. I used your method and was able to make a pair of shiny blue earrings set in silver. I don't know how to send a picture of what I made but I wish I could show you what you inspired me to do as a first-timer. I love it so much I see myself doing this as a hobby! Thank you so much Justin, you have brought a whole new world of richness into my life and I always look forward to watching your videos! I only wish I knew when I could watch live so I could comment and talk to the others as you're cutting gems. Warmest regards from BC Canada, Renée Barnaby
Nice message and gesture mate! This video saved me an arm and leg as well. To think I can shape opal like these without buying those expensive tools! I live in New Zealand and polish rocks as well.
I think you could probably make a Pin with the picture of what you made (if you had a blog you could link to a blogpost something like "My first DIY Opal Earrings" and you could either do a step by step of the process and link this video in a sentence such as "This video showed me how to cut my own opals by hand. Or even a Pin titled How I learned to Cut Opals by hand for these earrings" and a direct link to this video. Lots of possibilities to showcase your work and give props...
Oh, this was wonderful! I had no idea it was possible to transform opal from its original form into a truly beautiful piece. I adore opals (they're my birthstone), but have only one, as here in the States, they're pricey. Suddenly - as a retiree on a fixed income - you've given me a hobby that's inexpensive, fun, and gives me greater access to my favorite gemstome! Thank you so much for sharing this knowledge with the world.
Well thats awesome I am glad I can help. :-) you can also buy starter packs on my website to get you learning about cutting rough opal. www.blackopaldirect.com
Hey Justin, another great video! Just a quick tip for you when doing it with this method. You should really soak both the sand paper and sharpening stone in water for at least a few hours and preferably overnight. This will help keep the stone lubricated and not require constant spritzing and make the paper more supple and easier to work with. Cheers!
this is true, back where i work they love water sanding, things comes out less rough and less wear on the sandpaper or whatever you are using to sand the stuff you want to sand or polish.
Thank you. I saw this, tried it on a small opal and got good results.. so for now i dont have to buy expensive to me machines. good stuff to pass the long winter hours stuck in the house. and i can do it while watching a movie.. 2 thumbs up..
hey! I just wanted to say thank you for posting this video! I just used this tutorial to recut a broken coober pedy opal I was gifted! the results were phenomenal!
As a newbie at cutting, distinguishing and understanding colour and shaping opals, I have watched countless clips, now I finally feel confident to havd a go and try get something other than pile of sand and bits. I will be doing all by hand so should be done in a month of Sundays
Justin , Ive been watching your videos for years ! During this latest lockdown i have taken up opal jewelry making and your videos are my life line to keeping me sane , Thank you so much for being so detailed.
Thank you! Thank you! I used your polishing technique on my antique art deco opal that was very cloudy. After just 5 minutes it has a shine again! I will work on it more when I have the time, but the cerium oxide just came and I had to try it. No jeweler was willing to polish the stone. They were afraid to remove it from the ring. The ring has prongs, but I used a thin piece of leather and put my fingers behind it so it polished fairly well around the prongs too. I don't know how to thank you. It's a very nice opal but was so dull the color couldn't shine through. Now it gorgeous again!
I'm not surprised to see such results. I mean, one just has to consider the fabulous stones in antique items pre-electricity such as those worn by the various royals that preceeded Queen Elizabeth the first, right up to Victoria, to know that such phenomenal cuts were achieved through similar techniques. And that's just the English. We could go back considerably further to see phenomenal work from Scandinavian, Egyptian, Oriential and Grecian royal houses (etc.,) to see precious gems formed into extraordinary pieces.
thank you, your the best giving various tips about opals. certainly a 5 star rating. would enjoy seeing you set the opal in a gold metal setting-pendant, ring, etc, using bezel, prongs, etc... that would be so enjoyable.
I very much want to start cutting and polishing Opel. Guess it's like you say "Opel fever" but also close to retirement and want a hobby that I can do inside. I think if I can do a few pieces like this by hand it might be enough to get the Nova machines. Love working with my hands but I really think I'd enjoy the machine better and would really like to set up a small workshop in a space I have. Thanks Justin I really appreciate your knowledge and the fact that you share it. It's priceless!!
Thank you, Justin, for this. People like me who want to do things with opals, or any type of gems and don't have the money or space for machines can do things like this by hand.
great to see it done this way. Thank you Justin. I have been doing hundreds of stones this way only just beginning to try 4 inch combo unit. but still love doing it the so called long way. Thanks for video. I polish on a stretched piece of denim with cerium also polishes nice.
+Black Opal Direct so I would love to get in to this, so what gemstones would you say I should start on [ and most likely destroy ] and where can I buy enough rough gemstones to learn
+MooseALot Hi Moose You can start here blackopaldirect.com/buy-opal/product-category/rough-opal/rough-opal-parcels/ Their are some beginner parcels to buy on my site
+MooseALot Hi Moose You can start here blackopaldirect.com/buy-opal/product-category/rough-opal/rough-opal-parcels/ Their are some beginner parcels to buy on my site
Mate! I’m so SO glad I discovered your channel. I’m a creative person and was trying to discover a new hobby to sink me creative teeth into. And to state the obvious, it’s now opals. You have became my mentor and boy do you know your stuff. Always learning, always fun watching and listening to you ( your so funny, and I’m sure your family is embarrassed at time 😅) More comments to come, guaranteed ✌️
I am not (yet) a opal cutter, but I am a knife enthousiast. When we use a wet stones it’s recommended to soak the wet stone for about 15 minutes so it can’t damange the knife. I think it would be good for opal aswell but thats just a thought.
Just found your channel and subscribed. I really enjoyed this video. Its something I could do at the table at night without lots of noise annoying everyone
wow! this takes lapidary, back to the basics, creating a totally hand crafted piece from start to finish, elevating each piece to the status of timeless art. I have to try this :)
I taught myself this technique by accident. It works very well for opal, it takes longer when polishing harder stones up to 6 mohs. I'm glad to see I got it correct.
Justin, What a great video! I had no idea that the sharpening stone was made out of corundum. I have a few stones from the Crater of Diamonds in Murphysboro, Arkansas I've been meaning to do a scratch test on, but had no idea where I was going to come up with a piece of corundum. I learned so much from you in such a short video. Thanks so much! I really love Opals ( my mom's birthstone) they are by far my favorite gem even though I have none. One day I would love to order some. I would really enjoy mining for them in Australia. That would be an adventure. If you are ever in the US in Louisiana make sure you come to Jazz Fest. Thanks again! I look forward to more of your videos.videos! Yaya!
Thank you for the video and instructions! I've managed to get some great results from some rough Australian opal that I purchased using this method. The videos on your channel are fantastic, keep up the great work!
I am going to be buying some rough opal and applying these techniques to cut a few down to size to inlay into a ring I'm going to be melting down from some of my silver. adding about 10% copper by weight of course to deter the brittleness of pure silver. This video is an awesome reference! I'm still debating on whether I want to make a cabochon cut and set it into the ring, or cut the opal into small bits and inlay them. or whether the ring will come out well at all haha
Just getting my tools set up for polishing some Ethiopian rough (can’t afford the nice Australian rough yet) and I live in suburban Texas, where it’s tough to find the machines that help you cabochon for a decent price, so this’ll be a perfect method to try!
Thank you for this! One of my amazing friends gifted me some beautiful unpolished opals to make jewelry with them but I was so lost as to where to start.
Hello Justin, I love all your video's and you have tough me a lot and I thank you so much for that, I'm an October man and without knowing that was my birth stone until a few years ago and I'm sixty can you imagine that, I have been obsessed with opals for as far back as I can remember, anyway My girlfriend was born the same month and last year I bought her a beautiful Ethiopian opal ring sterling silver, well I have taught myself a lot about them reading and watching all your video's and even made my own cutting, grinding, and polishing machines, I bought the ring on ebay, the fellow had a video of the ring showed it close up and moved it around and everything and I can tell 90% of the time if there not real, this stone looked amazing and a nice size too, I received it tested the silver it was 9.25 like he said the stone was more amazing in person and the back of the stone was not covered and looked the same from both sides, well she put it on and hasn't taken it off since last Christmas OK last mouth I had tightened the prongs cause it was a little loose still we looked at it and said wow this was such a good deal we will never find another one this nice for such a good price, this is where it gets strange Three weeks had passed and I went to pick her up at work in the truck she told me the color has gone out of the stone, it looks like a jelly opal with no colors at all and you would be able to see these colors across a room if the light hit it so now I have a clear yellow stone, can you make sense of this Justin? I can't figure it out, thank you for reading all this. Stephen.B
I never even knew this technique, or that it had a name. But I use this very same technique to cut and polish Oregon Sunstone rough into gems. I can't afford the machines, so I thought to use knife stones of various grit as well as wet / dry sand paper, from 800 grit to 5000 grit. It takes about 6 to 10 hours to cut and polish each stone, sometimes a little longer depending on the size, hardness a shape I'm going for.
Thanks so much for showing this...I live in Las Vegas, NV...everything is shut down, i do not have lapidary equipment. So this is something I can manage till everything opens up and folks realize the crazyness..
I think your little wedgie is beautiful! The size/proportions and colors there in are as nice ad could be. Really, what the hell would you change?!? As a recording engineer, I had the pleasure of working with Bill Withers. A saying he used referring to a great performance that a musician thought could be better; “It’s like trying to chrome plate some sterling silver.” Your wedgie is just fine. I have enjoyed your shows/classes for sometime now. Thank you for them. Sawdust B-bob r2t2 Merritt Recording Engineer, Record Plant, Los Angeles.
Firstly, your videos are awsome. We can see how a rough opal can turn to a gemstone. Secondly, how much does it costs by its rough shape and where can I buy rough opal online? Thanks again for your videos
I'm actually using this to repair an opal. Going to sand both halves a bit and place a thin piece of silver between the two before resetting the cab. Thanks!
Thankyou sooooo much for posting this great video...finally I can clean my roughs up that i bought at lightning ridge a few years ago ...i know what ill be doing on my days off coming up ...thanks again for posting
Ahora entiendo porque Gustav Klimt es mi pintor favorito, porque en sus cuadros yo tengo recuerdos de los colores de los ópalos australiano, en particular el cuadro del beso con sus reflejos naranjas dorados cálidos. Saludos desde Barcelona
That is actually cool. A small kit to play with something while stuck in another city or hotel room fighting boredom. Stone Tes is like this for faceted stones.
This looks very helpful! I just inherited 50 or so rough opals my grandpa mined in Japan 50 years ago. Would you mind writing down the items needed in the description of the video? English is not my first language and I'm having some problems picking the names by audio only. Very much appreciated!
Awesome video! I just got into opals, and your videos are so addictive to watch. I have a question though. Can I use something else instead of the leather?
im a beginner lapidarist and i cant afford the expensive diamond stones and wheels used to put facets on stones and such. will this method work with other gemstones? obviously this wont work with diamond due to its hardness but will it work on emeralds and other minerals and stones?
Rocks have always fascinated me :) I’m really excited about the beginners parcel, collecting the list of items I’d need. What grades were the sharpening stone?
I am learning so much from your videos. You are a very good teacher. I live in Arizona, USA. If you had classes here I would sign up. I want to buy the Cerium Oxide. I see many brand which should I use. Or should I just but the syringe of diamond paste. Is Cerium Oxide the same grid as the 50,000 diamond paste. Also, what speed do you set your Dremel to. Thanks again for showing us how to polish and carve opals.
Wonderful video, thank you so much I love this channel! Would you recommend this technique for Mexican cantera opal, or would there be a chance the cerium oxide would get lodged in the pores of the rhyolite matrix and be difficult to remove? I am a mineral collector but have never polished gems before. thank you :)
Just a tip for the leather, get veg tanned leather and use the flesh side (shave or sand it down so it is smooth), it will load up with oxide nicely. (I make strops for razors this way)
