Virgin Valley N1 Black Opal Limb Cast - unique color pattern, need help

[Shea_O]

Uploaded a new video of The Black Hole in yesterday’s evening sun, first daylight in 5 months for this stone. The colors are showing up well, you can see that the peacock flash in the small piece is also showing up in The Black Hole

I’m thinking of slicing the potch away from beneath the stone. I picked up a diamond cintered blade just for the task (About 1/16” thick)..

[PinkDiamond]

That's a real beauty, but unlike a black hole in space, it emits gorgeous colors. That's the best kind of black hole to have around. I'm looking forward to seeing it after you cut the potch off.

[Shea_O]

Here is the 10ct piece finally being cut!

Last night the clay was skined off the back with my NEW GENIE! Wooohoooo!

Dried for 11months and this is the first time the stone has been touched to equipment....to brand new Nova wheels no less! (Broken in wheels of course)

Sorry that I didn’t capture better footage of the stone but proper handling takes precedence over a video of the stone this early into the process still. Hopefully I get to the next step!

It won’t see water or equipment again for 2 weeks, so I’ll have more footage then (and hopefully better quality).

There is a very nice sheet of color sitting right under the surface on the round face of the stone, the target will be to get the last of the clay removed without cutting too deep and going past the nice sheet of color that seems to be wrapped around the dome.

This is the first opal my Genie ever touched. Top notch black opal! A fine start to a machine dedicated to cutting opals! Hooooraaay!! This is a huge personal goal!

[PinkDiamond]

Boy, that is a big one. I can see hints of color in there, and hope the new Genie is kind to it because I'm looking forward to seeing those colors better. Best of luck with it, and a big congrats on your new machine.

[OpalSpectrum]

congrats buddy
but before you will cut your best stones I suggest to practice skills & technique on some low/medium grade material !

[Shea_O]

congrats buddy
but before you will cut your best stones I suggest to practice skills & technique on some low/medium grade material !

Yes absolutely, I agree. I have been accumulating rough of varying quality for about a year now and will be practicing on it quite a bit.

I’ve been able to meet up with my original mentor and he is helping me with handling the extremely valuable material for now. We have arrangements to meet every couple weeks when the next step is ready to be carried out on the black opal. I asked him to be the person who cuts the 10ct piece in entirety. I’m humble enough to know such precious material is deserving of the hand of a master, which I am not.

I have learned an immense bit on cutting/handling/storage techniques for varying kinds of opal and now is the time to put my hands to work and accumulate the hands-on skill that only thousands of hours on the Genie can provide.

I have produced some great stones so far - to completion, but not nearly enough pieces to allow myself to work the VV black opal!

[Shea_O]

Alright folks, I took a big step and sliced away a lot of the potch below The Black Hole!

That crack that was in the face of the potch, sitting right under the opal doesn't extend into the stone and fell away once the cut was complete.... so VERY GOOD NEWS!

I took some saucy video of the opal in its new state, in a bowl of water with a mirror under it. Gives it a nifty optical effect of being able to look at the stone at many angles at the same time.

This is world class black opal, no? Hot damn look at it go!!! Those flashes... if only I had a $3,000 camera to zoooooooooooom in on it while it is full blitz... might break the camera!

WATCH THIS IN THE HIGHEST DEFINITION YOUR COMPUTER OR PHONE CAN HANDLE!

[PinkDiamond]

Watching all those colors flitting in and out of that gorgeous little black hole is mesmerizing. The blues, greens, golds, ... and those reds are outstanding! You have found quite a treasure, Shea. Can't wait to see what you do with it.

[Shea_O]

Hi all, so I have been a busy bee lately. Last night I cut the smaller chunk that is off The Black Hole that had the “peacock flash” in it. It was initially 10ct with the clay rind, after I skinned that off it was down to 6.90ct.

I haven’t weighed it yet since I’m unsure if I want to make it a more uniform shape. To do so would require either attempting to slice off the lumpy shoulder, which in the below video is seen on the bottom-right of the image.. or avoiding the fracture risk of cutting and simply grinding it away.

I need everyone’s opinion. I’m horrified of cutting right on glass-opal of this quality, even on my .014 thick diamond cintered trimsaw blade.

I could just facor into the sale price the premium of losing the material by pricing the stone at the 6.90ct weight that it was with almost all of the clay rind removed.. before any cutting of glass occurred.

I now know what the POC pattern is for The Black Hole, due to this piece! It’s honeycomb!

Is honeycomb unusual for Virgin Valley opal? I don’t recall seeing much if any in the past.

[SwordfishMining]

Most diggers dont sell their honey comb. It looks like barred fire or flickering flames from the sides too. It happens in volcanic opal but not in the sedimentary Australians. I call it plume play of fire or a plume garden when they are packed like blades of grass in a clearer opal and you can see all around them. (See Opal Negras Magnifica video at you tube)
The color runs thru the spectrum as it hits at different angles usually. The Wilsons would be the ones that know the most about their opals as Ive seldom dug on that side of the valley, but even still have not seen a large assortment to tell what is the most likely to make it, other than whites/clears do make it a lot more than the blacks. I like cutting the blacks and leaving the backs on as do the Aussies. They do it for weight, we do it because the color likes to hug the skin, brightest. Otherwise, the best ones are kept wet until you see what a piece of it does dry. The question is how much do you want to help it maybe dry by removing material. If i had to save a stone i would saw it down to the overage from what i thought would finally come out of it first. Less stress when finally dry and the ex manager of the Bonanza cut his all the way thru polish prior to initial drying. The big ones still crack as a rule, even tho there are many exceptions carried in pockets. The less you start with, the more likely it is to make it. The pieces usually tell what the chunk will do. My first cut is almost always to help the display of the remaining piece, while i go and do the smaller stones by at least final shaping before i let it try to dry. If the small wont dry the big sure is not going to. have i mentioned this is very time consuming compared to others mining. No help for how to improve those odds short of hands on experience. My mines fire when plume is sidewaysish. The opals from there look and act different than the Peacock or the Bonanza. And yes a lot of people me included just close our eyes, dry it all and cut the big stuff left and make floating opal jewelry with all the other cts. Well, other than the crazy ones you can use CA on and make sure they hold together, but i usually make that decision after "drying it and seeing what is left. You'd be surprised how much does go white or other things that make it the most valuable wet. Just gambling for great rewards is going to have a high failure rate. 90% + maybe, on the way to naturals.

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