This week Justin has some bad luck with a piece of nobby opal that looked promising but ended up a bit of fail! Then he decided to try one more piece… which opal has the better gem?
Justin starts with a piece he’s had for a while which, from the outside, appears to have a nice color bar and potential to be a really good gem. How will this nobby opal turn out? Let’s cut it and see!
… It did NOT work out to be the kind of gem we were hoping for.
After cutting away at the stone, Justin explains that it is not turning black in body tone, there’s web in the face, and it’s not the bright gem he was thinking he’d uncover.
Let’s try again!
Justin grabs another nobby opal from the same underground pocket with a white cap just like the first piece; they look very similar on the outside so let’s cut this one and see if we can find a more impressive gem inside.
The nobby opal isn’t showing anything exciting and just when he starts to lose faith that this stone might be different…
Justin grinds just a LITTLE more and uncovers an amazing, vibrant gem!
The second gem is 2.57ct and has a dark body tone with a bright, dazzling color bar. Justin then cleans and polishes the opal to show off its outrageous color. After the first fail of nobby opal, Justin is so excited about finding a gorgeous gem inside nobby opal from the same pocket that he just HAS to dance it out! Party time…
We hope you enjoy this weeks video and Justin’s hilarious (great) happy dance – head to our channel to watch more opal videos!
