This week Justin will take you through some obvious and not so obvious differences between natural Australian black opal and treated black opal. Key factors when spotting a fake opal. Polish: Tre...
Ethiopian opal is beautiful but very different to Australian opal. Today, I show you how Ethiopian opal can be treated to look like glass or even turned black! Quick and important disclaimer: the o...
How can you tell whether an opal is a doublet or completely natural? There are a lot of opal and opal jewelry sellers out there, but how can you tell what if you’re paying for is natural opal? Fir...
New synthetic opals are being created every year and manufacturers are getting better at replicating natural opal. I recently obtained some of the new material from Tony Smallwood and thought it wa...
Opal is one of the most fashionable gemstones right now and we see lots in the market place. In today’s video we give you 3 tips on how to spot a synthetic or fake opal. Now we know that there a...
Only one of these opals is real. So have a go at trying to pick the right one. There are three different types of opal here, and only one is the real deal. The answer is below… The answer...
Opal doublets are a fantastic way to achieve a great looking black opal at a fraction of a solid price. They are a great choice for many of us when looking for a champagne taste opal on a beer budg...
A few months ago we talked about how to spot a fake Lightning Ridge black opal and the many examples of the fake stuff found on Ebay. We put our money on the table and purchased a few pieces from a...
In this video, we show you how to spot a fake black opal. Unfortunately, much of the opal being misrepresented as Lightning Ridge black opal is actually Ethiopian crystal opal treated. It is diffi...