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Opal Cutter
An opal cutter or lapadist is a person who cuts and polishes opal from its rough state. The material called opal is made up of silica beads so the hardness is about a 6 on the hardness scale.
An opal cutter has to be able to study rough opal and determine how to cut the best color out to make the biggest polished solid opal possible.
Lapidists will study an opal pieces for up to a week before they take it to the grinding wheel. If they make mistakes they could be loosing thousands of dollars in one bad decision. The most important procedure is to figure out which is the best way to face the opal. Once the face has been determined, the shape will be the next. They have to figure out whether they are going to cut a traditional oval shape or a freeshape. Ovals have been the shape of choice for all markets around the world.
Next the cutter has to give the opal a dome or cabachon if possible by moving the opal around on the grinding wheel until the stone is smooth.
If the opal is going to be carving or free-shape a dremel with nova points are to be used.
Many types of opal cutting machines are used from start to finish.
First starting with a diamond grit wheel and moving down a process of finer and finer abrasives like diamond grits to pumice powder and cerium oxide giving the opal a shiny glass polish finish.
In order for an opal cutter to become a professional, they would have had to have cut an polished at least 1000 opals before they would have any real idea of how opal cuts to its best potential.
I have cut well over 40,000 opals in my life and am still learning every time I cut a stone. With new opal fields popping up the opal cutter has to re-educate themselves to the way the new opal field will cut and which way the opal will face best, giving them a never ending education on opal.
An opal cutter will charge on contracting cutting for other opal buyers and miners about 2 to 5% of the value of the opal or charge a per stone rate. Depending on how good the lapidist is depends on how much they can charge.
Professional Opal cutters are becoming scarce nowadays because of the lack of opal coming out of the ground, there is not enough work around for them.
Boulder opal cutters usually don’t cut Lightning Ridge opal because they use different opal cutting equipment. Boulder cutters use leather pads and smaller wheels to cut with.
For more information on opal cutting or purchasing opal. Please email blackopalsdirect@live.com or you can call me on Skype My username is Blackopaldirect and it's free!
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