Welcome to the Opal Channel! Watch, learn and enjoy our videos that are all about opals. The videos are made by genuine opal miners, cutters, sellers and industry leaders to show you what goes behind the scenes to discovering amazing quality opals. It’s a great guide to show you how to have a discerning eye for opals, which is very important if you want a natural stone and not a synthetic opal. For those who would like to start cutting their own opal, there are plenty of good tips to help you understand how to cut and polish your own rough opal from start to finish. With our videos, you can travel around the globe and view the unique opal mining sites in search of the perfect opal. You can become your very own opal expert!

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EDUCATIONAL INTRODUCTION VIDEOS

These videos are ideal for new opal buyers. They can help you understand the basics of opal knowledge. It’s important to be able to tell the difference between opal doublets and triplets from the lesser valued synthetic opal. Are you able to tell the difference between Australian or Ethiopian crystal opal? Product knowledge is important for the identification of opals, as there are many different types of opals available. Watch our videos, so you can become an opal expert. We hope you greatly enjoy the beauty and rarity of our opals.

INTERESTED IN OPAL MINING?

10 AWESOME FACTS ABOUT OPALS

SYNTHETIC AND TREATED OPALS

HOW DOES OPAL FORM?

WHAT ARE OPAL DOUBLETS AND WHAT’S THEIR USES?

CAN YOU TELL WHICH IS THE AUSTRALIAN OR ETHIOPIAN CRYSTAL OPAL?

OPAL CUTTING VIDEOS

These videos are a great learning tool as they contain valuable cutting information from the most experienced cutters. Watch them properly cut and polish opals such as black opals and boulder opals from start to finish.

The Empress black opal featured on the video below is an extremely rare item to find. The black opals that contain a strong red fire black are highly valued due to their rarity. Most opal miners may never find a red fire opal with this quality. Opal cutting is a very addictive and rewarding activity. Many people worldwide enjoy it but it does take a lot of experience to cut a black opal rough specimen. We hope you can learn from these videos and start cutting your very own rough. You never know what you may find!

CUTTING THE BLACK EMPRESS OPAL

RUBBING DOWN A BOULDER OPAL

BLACK OPAL - ROUGH CUT & POLISH FROM START TO FINISH 

SPLITTING BOULDER OPALS 

HOW TO CUT A SLAB OPAL 

OPAL MINING VIDEOS WORLDWIDE

These videos are a great insight to the journey that opal miners undergo to find the perfect opals. The working conditions for an opal miner can be very hard and often dangerous. From the outback desert in Australia, the mountains of Ethiopia and the tropical jungle of Indonesia. The videos show the hard work and dedication that is required to be an opal miner. It’s a great pleasure when they find a good pocket of opal bearing dirt, that might contain rich opal colours.

OPAL MINING FOR A RED BLACK OPAL

ETHIOPIAN OPAL MINING

INDONESIAN MINING

AFTER MINING BOULDER OPAL FOR A YEAR, THEY THOUGHT THEY HIT THE JACKPOT

OPAL MINER FINDS A RARE CLAIM FULL OF OPALIZED SHELLS

ADVANCED OPAL VIDEOS

These advanced opal videos contain very helpful information to further explain the uniqueness of an opal. Topics covered includes grading a black opal, the importance of the opal body tone, the rarest opal pattern and the variance in the pattern. You can try and practice your knowledge by picking the best and most valuable opals in either parcel A or B, or you can try your luck on another video and pick which is the black Australian opal.

CAN YOU PICK WHICH IS THE NATURAL AUSTRALIAN BLACK OPAL?

WHAT IS A HARLEQUIN PATTERN OPAL?

DO YOU KNOW THE BASE BODE TONE CHART?

WHICH OPAL PARCEL IS WORTH THE MOST?

HOW TO MAKE AN OPAL DOUBLET

Replace Old Cutting Wheels! | Opal Auctions

We show you when and how replace and old cutting wheels from this old cutting machine we have just bought! We will love to read your own experience!

Want To Know More?

If you’d like to learn more about opals please visit our educational opal articles. Product knowledge is important when purchasing your opals. Have confidence in our site that you are only getting the best natural opals. There are some opals treated such as Ethiopian opal that are smoked to look just like a black opal. The educational articles go deeper into technical opal information, opal stories, opal news, A-Z of opals and also a ‘Did you know?’ section.

We also suggest for new buyers to use our “Item watch’ as this helps to value and see what “No reserve” items are sold for. This is also a handy tool to keep you informed of any opal industry changes within the pricing, whilst helping you keep an upper hand in finding the best price and quality between the sellers. 

Thank you for viewing The Opal Channel !