Black crystal opal is a rare type of opal. It is tough to find black crystal opal in large quantities because its makeup is hard for nature to replicate. The black crystal opal has a clear looking effect with a dark tint that is shown right through the opal solid. If you hold the opal up to the light, you will be able to see through it but not as easy as crystal opal. So if you hold a Black crystal opal in your hand, you will not be able to see through it if you don’t hold the opal up to the light. It will look just like black opal.
These opals are mainly found in Lightning Ridge in Australia and a remixed up with every type of opal field there.
Black crystal opals have been known to reach prices of up to $6000 per carat and come with all the same colors as black opal; reds, greens, blues, oranges etc.
Black crystal opal is quite easy to cut for a lapidist because of its translucency; the opal cutter can see through the gem to see if any impurities may cause the opal to shaped smaller of into a free-form opal.
Black crystal opals go very well with most other gemstones, but you will find that they will overpower most single-coloured gemstone. So putting the opal as a centrepiece would be the best way to represent your jewelry piece.
There are a lot of opals out there that are called black crystal, but many have been misrepresented and are not black crystals.
Often, black crystal opal can be polished from both sides to make a double-sided opal. This increases the value of the opal because it can be made into a lot more exciting jewelry pieces that can flip over and still show fantastic color.
