Rough Australian Opal

Australia has become the mecca for opal with the best of the best from Lightning Ridge. The worlds eyes are on Australian opal whether it's online, the Tucson Gem Show, or in Japan. Black opal has been the number one opal gemstone in the world.

Rough opal from Lightning Ridge is one of the best ways to get your hands on some nice black opal without the cut stone price. Also the chances of having a win in a piece of opal by finding a rogue gem in the middle of a nobby. It does happen and I remember a few years ago I bought a nice parcel of opal off a miner in Lightning Ridge for $1000 and it didn't look like much. But when I put it on the wheel it opened up inside and I cut a $17,000 red on black opal solid. I was so happy I went to the opal miner and gave him another $1000 for my great win.

Rough opal from Australia has been sent to China to be cut by factories for very little money. They soon realized that when they sent black opal rough, the opal came back with pieces missing and stones cut badly making the owner of the opal loose money. The opal dealers realized very quickly that black opal was too valuable and only sent lower grade rough opal to be cut in the factories in China.

Rough opal from Lightning Ridge is like no other opal and learning to cut nobby opal is one of the hardest type to cut. If your just in the learning stages of opal cutting opal then you should be practicing on low grade opal. I have heard so many stories of people in Lightning Ridge rubbing their opal that they have mined and rubbed all the color away. People just say I don't know when to stop rubbing and they rub straight through the color-bar. So if you are learning to cut opal from the rough. be careful not to use rough and uneven cutting wheels. Diamond wheels are the way to go. The ultimate type of opal cutting wheel to use is a diamond sintered wheel about 250 grit for roughing out your approximate solid opal shape.
A sintered wheel has diamond grit embedded in the wheel up to 5mm thick. So the wheel will be lasting for decades. A 600 grit diamond wheel is great for the fine cutting and shaping before the polishing process is to be started.

Seam opal rough is found in fault lines in the opal bearing level underground. So it forms in the shape of plates that break up into smaller pieces once the opal has been mined. The way the miner gets the opal out of the wall is with a screwdriver (Gouging) and making sure the opal is not broken as much as possible. The seam opal is mostly found at the Grawin Opal Fields about 70 kilometers from Lightning Ridge.

Nobby opal is found next to fault lines in the form of round shapes to all different shapes, even shell or bones. The opal nobby is a gemstone that has made some of the most valuable opal in the world. The king of all opals being the red on black. These opals are mostly found in the old opal fields in Lightning Ridge and out at the Cooceran opal Field about 20 kilometers west of the Town of Lightning Ridge.

Some very lucky opal miners have opal claims called gouging claims and they call it their bank. They just go down the mine when they need money and just start picking away to find some money to pay for the living costs. But very few opal miners are lucky enough to find an opal claim as good as that.

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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Australian opal jewelry - Lightning Ridge - Australian opal rough - Free form opal - Opal Chips - Australian Opal Cutters - Rough Australian Opal - Rare Opal - Unset Opal - Opal Cutting - Man Opal Ring - Black Opal Jewelry - Opal Gemstones - Loose Opals - Rough Opals - Australian Boulder Opal - Australian Opal

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