Rough Opal Archives - Black Opal Direct

Posted on 18/03/201918/03/2019 by Justin Thomas

Three unique features of nobby rough opal from Lightning Ridge

I’ve been cutting some new nobby rough opal from Lightning Ridge. I thought it be good to share some of the unique features of these type of formations. I’ve selected an example to work on in the image below. The one thing that many (but not all) of these nobbies have in common is a potch base and a white cap on top. We see this a lot in rich deposits of opal. Some of the main opal fields including places like Jag Hill, Wyoming, and much of the Coocoran opal fields all have this in common. The Nobby You can see from the bottom up of this…

Posted on 17/07/201301/04/2016 by Ruth BT

Maintaining a good polish on opal

Many of you have been asking about maintaining a good polish with opal. In my opinion, the polish on a stone makes or breaks it. The finer the polish, the more you start to bring out all the play of colours as each element is shown in the best possible way. But polishing can be a tricky thing. Get grit on your polishing wheel and you will be forever trying to polish out marks. In this video Justin reveals his tools to ensure he gets a fine polish on his opal every time. From what wheels to use, to how to maintain and clean them, this quick video shows you…

Posted on 19/02/201321/04/2016 by Ruth BT

New from the opal fields

Well what a crazy last few days it’s been here up at the Ridge. The place is full of energy with so many people in town for the meeting on Saturday. It felt just like the old days – at the height of the black opal rush in the 90’s. Despite the crisis of government inaction, the opal scene is also upbeat, with quite a few people finding opal. A couple of new fields have been found or rediscovered with some patches that were missed from the drilling rigs of past. It just goes to show there is still plenty of opal out there to be found and miners around…