100ct Nobby Opal
A 100ct Nobby Opal, will it bring me obstacles or opportunities?
A piece of rough this big can make for an exciting cut. Obstacles like sand patches of inclusions may occur preventing me from cutting one large gem. If this is the case, I am then presented with the opportunity to cut multiple gems if I can navigate the inclusions. Let’s see what this one brings, may the opal gods be on our side!
Blue Shining Through
Using the Gemstone Flashlight, I can see that it’s clean all the way through, great! The bigger question is, will it face? The area where the nobby was found is quite new to me and I’m learning at the same time as all of you, how these types of Nobby’s will cut. As I am taking the top off, which is quite large, I can see a strong blue color coming through. I spy a rather prominent sand spot smack bang in the middle which is forcing me to take the color bar right down. By doing this I am getting closer to the potch and the opal’s body tone is becoming darker.
From 100ct Nobby Opal to…
Most of the sand spot disappeared before we lost too much of the color bar, woo hoo! So that means we were able to achieve one lovely large gem. We started with a 100ct nobby opal and ended with a 22.21ct black opal showing purple and blue.
The Final Result
Love the gems cut in the video? Get your hands on them before somebody else beats you to it!
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