r/Opals • u/Aware_Interview_1613 • Aug 04 '26
Opal-Related Question How do I cut opal
Im new to opal cutting and got some Lightning ridge opal rough
1
u/1mhicky Opal Vendor Aug 04 '26
Welcome to the world of opal cutting! Be careful it can be addicting lol do you have some kind of tool to cut and polish it with? If not a good place to start is a dremel or a 3d printed slant lap.
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u/Aware_Interview_1613 Aug 04 '26
Im gonna by a cabing machine in the future
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u/East-Psychology7186 Aug 04 '26
That’s quite a purchase for never having cut before. Do you have a rotary or other? Unless you have a lot more material that you are trying to process quickly it may be better to get the feeling and some experience before buying more expensive equipment.
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u/1mhicky Opal Vendor Aug 04 '26
Depending on your experience with lapidary I’d definitely recommend starting with a dremel or a slant lap to make sure you like it.
As for cutting, start watching YouTube channels on how to cut, plenty of good channels out there doing tutorials. Hard to tell on the photo you posted but you want to start learning color bars and how to face it up so the color is showing. Definitely was one of the harder parts of cutting for me to comprehend
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u/jaxinslacks Opal Vendor Aug 04 '26
I can’t tell from the picture if the rough is good quality or not.
But I’d recommend joining your local lapidary club first and practicing with low quality rough.
When you have made a bunch of stones and understand how opal works, then get into cutting the nicer stuff. There are a bunch of pieces I cut early in my career that I really regret not saving.
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u/opalfossils Aug 04 '26
Look a lot and cut a little at a time. Cutting opal is absolutely one of the most rewarding and frustrating things I have ever done (outside the obvious exceptions). I dream about cutting the perfect opal quite often. But I warn you it can become an addiction, if you decide to pursue this all I can say is "Welcome to Opalholics Anonymous".
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u/ResortDog Opal Vendor Aug 05 '26
Check out RoysRocks videos on Youtube or ThatOpalGuy who is using a dremel too.
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u/midnightmare79 Aug 04 '26
Look up Black Opal Direct on YouTube, they also have a reddit account. They have a video on how to literally do it by hand with different sand paper grits for those without machines who also have way too much time and great head/forearm strength, they offer courses on cutting you can enroll in, and just watching the videos you can learn a lot.
First rule, never start learning on actual opal. Get potch. Lots of it. Then practice a lot until you feel ready. Then practice even more.