Large Rough Opal cuts 3 gems worth over $20k

do i stuff this up or do i have a winner 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 today we have a monster black knobby   and it has some really nice color in it and  I hope we can cut a really big gem out of it   it has also a little bit of color on the back  that we have to investigate before I cut that   big stone because there's some nicer color but  I think it's more sun flash color which makes it   not so desirable anyway let's get into this  piece and see if we can cut a nice gem or two so let's just have a quick look at this piece  with the flashlight all right so I turned all   the lights off you can see well you can kind of  see that underneath this pot here on the top you   can see that there's clear color underneath and  that's making that flashlight shows it quite clear   and when I shine it all the way around it seems  to make it all the way around the whole stone   besides this sand spot so I may have to risk this  beautiful color on top to go for a big nice stone   underneath and that has its possibilities  so let's keep playing and see what happens okay stop stop stop stop stop stop before I  grind any further I really can't waste that   beautiful color on top just by grinding it down  that would be really sad so uh what I'm going to   attempt to do because I think this piece is thick  enough I am going to attempt to slice this piece   um in half just so that I can see what color bar  is below and probably get a nice black or black   crystal off the top or a couple so that's what I  am going to do now so I need to draw a line around   the edge so I can have a guide of where I'm going  to slice and we'll go with that drawing a line   around is just a guide I'm going to approach it  from every different angle to get exactly right so I am concerned about this stone because it's  so big i am worried about part of me I'm worried   about this blade bending or grabbing because when  you cut so deeply into a stone and this is really   big it can grab on the sides of the piece and it  can break the blade also as well as break this   in half or into pieces so it's a real struggle  to try and slice something this large and I'm   a bit nervous about it because that's really nice  color worth thousands on the top and there is the   possibility of below-being something even more  special so I just I'm not sure what not sure i don't really have another choice other  than to do this so I've got to pretty much   bite the bullet and um and  get it done but the risk   is huge because it can break quite easily  so I've got to have some really steady hands is the blade long enough I hope this blade doesn't bend   I probably should have changed to a new blade genius is taking a long time oh looks like I missed the mark oh my holy I'm holding my breath I had to stop oh my goodness this is gonna did you hear it grab  that that wheel just grabbed on I started to bend   inside the stone I had to take the pressure off  because if I kept going right then that flavor's   gonna break so the last part is now I've been  all around the outside so there's like a little   stem in the middle and the little stem  in the middle is the hardest part because   now that I've changed the blade angles on  it the blade can grab really quite easily so   I've got to be steady with this one and try  and get it right through without any hassles beautiful color there oh okay we're good holy Dooley that was um  that was a big slice that's it's a long way   through that piece if you look at it your blade  can catch especially if you're using a slicer   that doesn't have vices to hold it steady you're  using bare hands so I was pretty lucky with that   and I think I did slice it pretty  much through the right area   if you see I slice through a lot of potch but  on the back of the piece just underneath that   potch when I grind it down I believe that this  part of the color is going to get bigger so   that's that should be pretty good and also the top  piece I may be able to get more than one stone out   of it so I'm really happy with um with the way it  turned out and now we just got to get on the wheel   on the 90 grit again because it's still a big  piece and we're gonna um see what stones come out all right so let's have a look at this  piece and see a beautiful pattern there   and underneath here the color goes a bit further  and underneath there the color goes a bit further   so if I was to grind some of that away chances  are the piece will be bigger you can see there's   a bit of color already starting to show up  there this sand is going to kill some of it and you can see that color already coming through yes oh look at that oh it's cleaning up that is crazy holy dooley oh my goodness i got a like a 20 carat  stone off the bottom that's amazing all   i need to do is get that potch out now yes  expecting a stone this big what look at that hello i have to give you a  close-up look come to check it out   I was expecting something on that bottom bar  but nothing as huge and as beautiful as this all right we're just going to have a go at  the other piece and you can see where the   residue color from the second bar sitting  there and this is where I'm going to go for   my stone most of this is eaten by potch and  sand so let's have a go at cleaning it up so so what would be ideal is if this sand came out oh my goodness it did too everything's going right for  me today I love these days so uh I think it's important now that I stop right  now and I go on the finer wheels because this   thing this wheel just takes off so much opal  so quickly so we're gonna swap machines now I'm really happy with this this is actually  let's get the scales and see how much it weighs all right I'm really excited  about this big stone because   once it's cut it'll be probably three  or four more carrots off but for now something's wrong with it it's broken   it works all right let's test it out see what  it weighs this big one what does it weigh 38 carats 38.75 so it'll probably be around  part of me around the 30 carats finished   so very very happy and what I wasn't um  really accounting for was the mama bear   and baby bear as well so without slicing  that off the top I never would have got   that stone I just would have ground it away and  having to take that little nodule off the edge   so I could cut my little oval here very very  happy so we're going to start cutting it now now the stressful part of  the cutting process is done   I can relax and enjoy shaping curving  and watching these gems come to life   while open cutting it gives me a chance to  think in my own space to recharge and reminisce   on some of life's accomplishments it always  puts me in a good mood just like meditation so all right so we finished we've finished these  beautiful stones and I'm really really happy   with the way the biggest one turned out absolutely  gorgeous color and I didn't expect to be well   I was hoping for it to be good underneath but  we took a risk and uh sliced right through it   and this one ends up being 32 carrots so really  happy about that 32-carat nice gem black opal   the next one was 15.62 which this is  the piece that I sliced off the top   and if I ground it down we'd have no stone so it  was important for me to start slicing that stone   in pieces but uh just it was a bit of a  risk and the small stone is 1.12 carats so   it's quite it was worth saving  this little stain that's for sure   so very very cool I'm very happy with  that now for a price what do we come to hmm 32 carats let me get a calculator oh yeah so I'm thinking that this is 32 carats   at about 500 a carat which is a lot so 32 times  500 that's 16 000 for that beautiful gem so   really really happy about that gorgeous stone  didn't expect it to be expensive as that the next   one is 15.62 now that's the piece I sliced off  the top and 15 15.62 times I'd say 300 a carat   300 4600 so pretty good where it's adding up quite  quickly and the little 1.12 is about a 500 gem so   I think we've done pretty well this time and I  am super stoked glad I got to share it with you   and hopefully we get to do it all again next week  thanks for watching and I'll see you next time you

Channel: Black Opal Direct

Views: 281,173

Rating: 4.9382648 out of 5

Keywords: opal, black opal, crystal opal, rough opal, lightning ridge, australian opal, lapidary, opal cutting, opalrubs, polished black opal, gem opal, man opal ring, opal jewellery, white opal, light opal, matrix opal, gem, gemstone, lightning ridge opal

Id: mC53ifMEP04

Length: 19min 57sec (1197 seconds)

Published: Mon Apr 26 2021