Watch a rough opal piece transform and then be appraised.

So many times now I have taken a video of a rough opal that I’ve cut and polished. For once I wanted to show you how opal can have a mind of its own and even with all my experience I can still get it wrong.

If you would like to see a nice gem cut to perfection click HERE

As I cut this opal on the opal cutting wheel I start to expose the nice gem color hoping for a top gem. I estimated a gem around the US$2000 but I didn’t account for a few things. The potch bar was not even and the color bar was not nearly as strong as I had imagined. So the color was a lot weaker making the opal closer to a value of $800

Could I have cut it better? I don’t think so, I think this opal was just not meant to be as good as I had hoped. Watch the video and see for yourself.