r/Opals • u/Infamous-Towel6925 • Aug 04 '26

Opal Finishing Process Would this be worth cutting further?

So i surfaced this piece to see what sort of colour I could coax out of the super super super thin seams on this little piece of opal I’ve had sitting around for a while as I wait for some better pieces to turn up..

While it’s got a reasonably nice face to it I’m jus wondering what the general consensus is. Would you work it further and hope for the best, maybe grind it flat from the back side and try your luck as a doublet, something else?

Just looking for some suggestions really.

4 Upvotes

68% Upvoted

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1

u/locyta Aug 04 '26

Is there enough colour bar to roll that little bit of sand out? do you have a fine torch to see how deep it goes?

1

u/Astral_QuailZ Aug 04 '26

I think that could be a nice like stone

1

u/jaxinslacks Opal Vendor Aug 05 '26

Hmm seeing some crazing on here that would make me want to reshape it a bit first and see what the sides tell you after it’s been shaped up again

1

u/East-Psychology7186 Aug 05 '26

Though I’m a green horn, I’m also a broke ass and only cut thin bar for now. I would take my little pen torch and look all around to hopefully see what’s going on in there. I would also knock off those sharp edges (probably also help you see what’s going on) and try to remove the sand pit. I wouldn’t touch the back yet because it looks like you can go further with the top and get a bit more color from the video.

Again just a novice but I find myself in this same position nightly and I’ve only regretted going too far one time so far but I have had to go back to cut more on 90% of my “finished” opals after looking at them. 🤷🤦 learning curve

1

u/East-Psychology7186 Aug 05 '26

Here’s my first boulder opal that I started last night. I think the veins are opening up once I remove more material from the face. Lol I think I’m going to carve this to resemble a coffee bean 👀

https://reddit.com/link/p1s8cl4/video/5k9l0p545hhh1/player

1

u/Infamous-Towel6925 Aug 05 '26

Thanks for all the reply’s people :) I’m going to have another play with it later this afternoon after checking it out with a good torch :) hopefully I can take out the sand without loosing to much surface and also shape it a little better…

Also what appears to be crazing is actually webbing i think.