Opal Cut of the Year!

This is without a doubt, the opal cut of the year!

The nobby was presented to me on my last trip to Lightning Ridge for the asking price of AUD$2000. With the help of the Gemstone Flashlight, I was able to analyze the nobby for inclusions pre-purchase. The light reached 3/4’s of the way into the piece of rough showing it was quite clean. This gave me the confidence that it should cut a relatively clean gem. So I paid the good man and couldn’t wait to get the piece home and onto the wheel!

The Dark Web

After getting the nobby onto the wheel, I was worried it may not face, it looked a bit weak and watery. There are flashes of promising color, but I can see webbing, which could completely ruin it! Argh! As I’m taking the top off, more and more grey webbing comes through. If the grey turns to black webbing, we’re in business.

It looks like the centre of the gem is quite cloudy and grey with a weak color bar. If we slice it in half, we’ll have a better chance at 2 great gems rather than 1 average opal. Luckily we did, as that cloudy color disappeared in the centre.

The Colorbar Sacrifice

After slicing the gem, it does look like the color becomes better closer to the potch. So, off with the entire top color bar, riddled with grey webbing, in the hope of a brighter and cleaner bottom color bar. This is a risky move, but without risk, you may not reach the reward.

That was an absolute rollercoaster ride of a cut!

Where I thought the grey webbing was going to ruin the entire nobby, it cleaned up nicely and the color and pattern shined through. The second opal is almost completely free of webbing and we were able to produce an exceptionally great black opal. From purchase price to selling prices, the profit made is what makes this the opal cut of the year so far.
And for that, I am glad I trusted my instincts and the Gemfish Flashlight (shameless promotion) and took those calculated risks to get those black opals I knew were in there somewhere.