I just got back from Lightning Ridge helping Saxon with his mining operation. While I was there, a close friend of my late father handed me a 140 carat piece of black Lightning Ridge rough. One sta...
This cutting video starts where it all begins — straight from the agitator at the mine in Lightning Ridge. A 30 carat rough piece with holes, uncertainty, and a color that hints at something incred...
This week I'm putting a dark opal nobby from Lightning Ridge on the wheel. From the moment I picked it up, that color sitting on the surface had my full attention. The shape is already close to a f...
There's a moment every opal cutter knows. The wheel is spinning, the rough is in your hand, and you genuinely don't know what's about to happen next. This week, I'm putting a 300 carat seam opal fr...
For the first time ever, Saxon went out and bought a piece of rough completely on his own. No safety net and no second opinion. Just a 250 carat nobby from the Wyoming field and a bit of courage. O...
The Copyte Needle Nobby we’re cutting today is not your average piece of rough. This half nobby is missing the classic cap you’d expect to see — and in its place? A web of copyte needles running th...
Top gem crystal opal cut moments don’t come around often, but this gemstone delivered the kind of excitement cutters live for. From the moment the 23-carat nobby hit the wheel, there was that feeli...
A High Profit Opal Cut is the kind of session every opal cutter dreams of — strong instincts, a few obstacles, and a result that proves why experience matters. From the moment this 28-carat Allawah...
Opal Cutting Recovery Effort doesn’t get much more real than this — one final chance to claw back a $25,000 investment from a brutal 4,500 carat opal parcel that simply refused to cooperate. After ...