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How To Cut Ethiopian Opal

Come tagliare l'opale etiope

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Interesting looking cabbing machine. Perhaps another time you might put up an article on how you built it.

I've seen several comments on using various types of super glues, however nothing is being mentioned about the best way to remove the stone from the dop after using super glue. What methods is everyone using? Solvent type? Since hydrophane opals absorb liquids Will any particular solvents hurt a hydrophane opal (or non-hydrophane for that matter)? TIA for the answers.

Message from Doug
thanks for asking about the RED stuff in my opals. What it is is diamond paste.  I have from 3.5 microns down to .5 microns.  Leaves such a beautiful polish that its hard to even hold the stone. So the paste comes in a syringe and you apply it to your polishing wheel it pretty much stays put because it is kind of oily, not runny oily but its oil based. my problem came when i introduced water to the polishing which the Welo opal sucked right up and wala you now have a completely red tinted opal. Wasn't thrilled with this outcome at all. Now the Australian opals have no problem with the diamond paste and im thinking the Welo might be okay as long as i dont use any water I would just have to be more cautious of heat build up using just the paste. i dont know why I haven't gotten some cerium oxide but then again its tinted and you have to use water with that stuff.  Do you have any suggestions?  I just not satisfied with the finished polish jobs i see when i get my opals.  I want them like glass, wet glass. I will take any tip you give me to heart and run with it there has got to be something i can use, besides 5000 grit sandpaper.
  Thank you for your time and sharing any tips on these Welos. They are a beautiful stone but very strange to work w

IF I MAY ASK A QUESTION HERE IM NOT SURE WHO THIS IS GOING TO BUT….
I AM A MODEST COLLECTOR AND ENJOY MY OPALS VERY MUCH .  WHENEVER I RECEIVE ONE IN THE MAIL I LOOK IT OVER REALLY GOOD WITH MY LOOP AND IF IM NOT SATISFIED WITH THE POLISH I GET MY DREMMEL OUT AND MY DIAMOND PASTE IN GRITS OF 2.5 - .5 MICRONS AND POLISH AWAY RESULTING IN A STONE THAT IS NEARLY IMPOSSIBLE TO HOLD ONTO DUE TO THE EXTREME POLISH.  I JUST NOTICED SOMETHING ON A VERY EXPENSIVE STONE I STARTED POLISHING THE RED TINTED POLISH HAS ABSORBED INTO MY STONE!!!!  IM DAMN NEAR IN TEARS! WHAT CAN I DO AND HOW CAN I POLISH AT THIS LEVEL WITH OUT THIS HAPPENING.  YOUR ADVICE WOULD BE MOST APPRECIATED.  THANK YOU,
DOUG MOODY

The best glue is two-part mixture for making dobbing sticks .
Araldite 5-minute glue is very practical due to its quick drying.
Some opal cutters use metal dobbing sticks and cheap instant glue which is satisfactory.

Larger size opals have tendency to fall off the doping stick and this can be frustrating and maybe expensive if it falls off while polishing.
It is best to have wider dobbing sticks for larger stones and use strong glue, example Epoxy 330
Epoxy 330 is ideal for making doublets and other uses, so it is always handy to have this glue available.

This article states that glue should be used for dopping Ethiopian opal, not dop wax. What type of glue is recommended (type of glue and/or brand please).

A preemptive thank you for the article and response.

Hi Queen of Gems, and Monty,
    Great article on Et, Welo cutting. Fracture testing is a long tested aid in exposing fractures along with light refraction from suspect areas.
    Refracting light with sunlight, flashlight and laser are all very useful. One of the most useful tools I use was touched on in the very informative tutorial, is the emersion test with hydrophane opal. Very simply pace the rough, one or more stones, in lukewarm water for just a short time, a minute or so and if the rough starts to show a clear line, or even several clear lines, the more time in the water the more visible the clear lines become. Those clear lines are fractures that are allowing water to penetrate the interior just as it does the surface of the stones start to clear.
    At that time I take a sharp pencil and trace those clear lines putting a path to see after the stone dries back out and I use these traces to then part those cracks. The first thing I try is just breaking them with my hands. If some part but some don't the next thing is a sharp Exacto type knife in the seam, and the last tool is a soft tap with the blunt tool as described in the article.
    The sharp tool most often splits the fracture and it continues, where it hadn't yet fractured, cleanly through where the natural fracture line is going to run. The blunt tool has a tendency to start more small fractures at the point of impact which may, or may not, cause additional problems in the opal. This isn't usually the case in other stones such as quartz or others.
    Monty, sorry to take so long in getting to this, but in my opal history (60 years since 1956), any opal that sticks together and has pretty color has value, which varies from person to person. Your gem of 8 years with the fracture "fire" in the back of the gem has proven it isn't going to cause any more fracture problems, short of leaving it in the hot sun, and you should enjoy it. I even see many gems with obvious fractures in auctions and for sale, so there is a market for beauty with disregard for perfection!!
    As always, the Opal Auction family and lapidary as a whole is eager to widely share their knowledge as shown by Queen of Gems and in this fine article!!
Cuck Starbird
chuckstarbird@sbcglobal.net

Monty it sounds like you have been having fun cutting Ethiopian opal for 8 years?
Originally a lot of Ethiopian opals had cracking problem but Welo opals are more stable now compared to 10 years ago when a lot of surface opals were mined as they were easy to obtain. Miners now dig deeper and seems the production is a lot better.
A lot of opal cutters now are doing ”fracture” testing on large amount of rough opals before cutting.
Quartz and mineral crystal cutters have always “fracture” tested before cutting and I was once in a factory in China that was carving quartz crystal skulls, and they poured boiling water and then freezing cold water on crystal to see if any cracks appeared.
You can imagine there is a lot of work to carve a skull so they did not want cracks to appear while carving them.
Most Ethiopian cutters do this fracture test now before cutting the rough opal and if there is fracture it is easy to spot.
If opal has fissure lines or crack lines inside I think they are still valuable, but if there is a crack on the surface, the opal is considerably less but not worthless.
I use strong torch to see if line reflects light and if it does, I consider it a crack, but many lines do not reflect light so I consider “fissure” testing on the opals are still valuable.
“One man’s trash is another man’s treasure’’  as the saying goes.

This comment was in response to the article by Chuck Starbrid

1. I enjoyed your article on the opal auction web site.  I got a bad taste on the older Ethiopian opals. I did get one of those to cut without cracks, I left the host rock backing on. The opal is now about 8 year
old.
2. I recently started trying to cut the welo opals. I have fair luck with the small ones. But with the large ones it is poor luck. The best one I cut so far was clean looking at it on the surface but a light shined from the bottom up showed plenty of fissure’s.  Cracked opal are considered valueless, would that opal be consider valueless. Any help for me.

Monty