300 carat massive uncut gem polished in reverse — Transcript

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1. 0:06join me for a very cool session on a very large
2. 0:10opal I need to make some serious  decisions here about which way I cut
3. 0:19it after studying this piece with a very very  thick color bar it has lots and lots of color
4. 0:33in it and it seems to be clean right through  to the other side there's only one problem
5. 0:41there's some color in there but the best  color is right on the line of potch so I'm
6. 0:49going to take a risk and I'm going to grind  all of that potch off to make a crystal opal
7. 1:06the new 90 grit wheel on the cab King machine  is eating up this potch very quickly uh because
8. 1:13I have a lot to get through to get down  to that color bar now this is going to
9. 1:18be quite a risk if I do say so myself I don't  know how this color is going to face but what
10. 1:26I do know is I don't want that gray potch  on the back of the stone I would prefer a
11. 1:32crystal opal than a dark opal every day of  the week and the other thing is the color
12. 1:40that's the best sitting on the potch would  be best sitting on the top of the opal and
13. 1:45not below or underneath that blue-green if  I grind it the other way around I will end
14. 1:52up grinding that blue-green off first to get  right down to that green color on the potch
15. 1:58so I think I think this is the best decision but  you'll have to stick around and see if it works
16. 2:04out getting closer to that color bar and the potch  is wearing thin I still don't need to change over
17. 2:36to the final wheel as yet but I will be when I  get close so I don't get any scratches in the
18. 2:42color I really am hoping that that green color  turns out much brighter than the purple color
19. 2:52below if it does we're on a winner if it  doesn't then well we're back to the the
20. 2:59drawing board and what I am also hoping is  that that poch is straight so that when I
21. 3:06grind all that potch off it's easy to make  one big stone that would be the ultimate
22. 3:12goal but it doesn't always work out that  way so once we get close we'll find that
23. 3:18out
24. 4:19I really should have seen some color come  through by now and I'm wondering why it's
25. 4:24not showing through every press I make on  this wheel I'm getting closer and closer
26. 4:31but it doesn't seem to be working  out very well and I'm wondering if
27. 4:35it's actually the potch concaving  in I have a hunch that I might be
28. 4:41right there's a bit of color on the edges  showing up but as I push further and further
29. 4:51it doesn't seem to go in very far you can  see that color showing on the edge but as
30. 4:56I work on the piece it's not cleaning up up  in the middle and it should be cleaning up
31. 5:01there first because the curvature of the  wheel means that the center of the piece
32. 5:06should be wearing out first so I think I've got  a little bit of a problem here oh and now I've
33. 5:13moved from the 90 grit wheel to the 2 180 grit  wheel so I can work on it a little bit [Music]
34. 5:24slower
35. 5:29[Music]
36. 5:29[Music]
37. 5:55that part should have come out by now  and what I'm thinking is that my last
38. 6:00thought about the concaving potch  is correct and I'm going to have to
39. 6:05make some drastic measures here if I want  to cut a clean stone or stones for that
40. 6:12[Music]
41. 6:20matter
42. 6:29[Music]
43. 6:29sh I really should be stopping right here but  I'm just giving a little few more hits to see
44. 7:06how much more comes out but what I'm wasting  is that color on the edges as I try and get out
45. 7:11the middle so I have to take some drastic  measures to save this color and slice it
46. 7:18up
47. 7:41I really hope this works out because there's no
48. 7:43turning back now once you've  made the cut you've made the
49. 7:48cut
50. 8:14and my hunch was right you can see those little  potch lines concaving into the green color so
51. 8:21if I had gone and tried to take all of  that out I would have lost most of the
52. 8:25color
53. 9:15is
54. 9:45even with these small stones, I'm struggling  to get the potch out so if I had left it one
55. 9:51big Stone I would have had to dremel it  and make a mess of the piece uh in order
56. 9:57to see that nice color so I think it's best  if we were to cut it up into smaller pieces
57. 10:04I can make nice pleasing shapes and with  these two I'm going to make a really nice
58. 10:09pair
59. 10:43they're nice and close in size  now and I can work on the other
60. 10:46pieces and I got the same problem again that  concaving potch so it looks like every piece
61. 11:06is going to be a lot smaller than I first thought  which is actually fine it really doesn't matter
62. 11:12too much about uh the weights or the sizes of  the stones when it comes to this type of opal
63. 11:19and the reason is I don't price this type of  opal per carrot I usually price it per piece
64. 11:26and that is because there's usually a lot of  excess on the backs of the stones or there's
65. 11:31color on the back that we don't really need  being a crystal so I just price it as one stone
66. 11:37value I was away last month at the Hong Kong  trade show and a lot of people came up to me
67. 11:55and said is black opal from Lightning Ridge  and I said yes it is uh and they showed me
68. 12:01some opal they bought and they thought it was  black opal and I said just because opal comes
69. 12:08from lightning Ridge doesn't make it black opal  it's its body tone that makes its black opal so,
70. 12:15for instance, these pieces here come from  lightning Ridge they're definitely not black
71. 12:20opal they are dark opal or what I'm trying  to do is make them into Crystal Opals uh by
72. 12:26taking the poch off the back and making  them more transluc so that's a bit of a
73. 12:31fallacy and an old way of for people to sell  opal to say that if opal comes from Lightning
74. 12:37Ridge it's it's black opal that's so not true  making you aware of these things helps you and
75. 12:45arms you a little bit better when you go to  a seller and try and buy some opal and they
76. 12:50tell you one thing hopefully you've learned  something to say well actually I know better
77. 12:58[Music] These are the preliminary shapes I'm quite
78. 13:16happy with what's come out  and now it's time to polish
79. 13:19them cutting opal is a Pastime that  takes many years of practice and still,
80. 13:35after 35 years it still throws me curve  balls and says you haven't figured me out
81. 13:41yet have you and it seems to happen time and  time again and that means I'm still learning
82. 13:49which is what keeps me in the game keeps  me on my toes and keeps me loving cutting
83. 13:54opal and while while I was hoping for a larger  piece I still would have considered chopping
84. 14:02it into smaller stones the only difference  is I would have had a really great surface
85. 14:08to Mark out the gems where I wanted them but  instead, I had to guess but it still worked out
86. 14:14okay
87. 14:28[Music]
88. 14:43this triangle while it's nice I thought  it might be better to trim it a little
89. 14:47bit further and make it a beautiful Drop  shape this still can be done on the dop
90. 14:53stick you just have to make sure that  the dop stick's small enough and the
91. 14:57wax isn't protruding out too far so that you  hit the wheel when you're grinding the stone
92. 15:02[Music]
93. 15:10in there were many ways to cut this piece  and this was my way but I'd love to hear
94. 15:25your thoughts about what you think you  would have done leave a comment below
95. 15:30and if you haven't subscribed  I hope I've earned it this time
96. 15:32[Music]
97. 15:41round well this was a really fun cut  I enjoyed taking away that thick layer
98. 15:54of Potch to see the reveal I bet you're  wondering what did it cost me and what
99. 16:01did I make any profit the piece cost me  $2,300 and now they've been cut we come
100. 16:08to an overall price of around $3,500 for all  of the gems together a nice earner for the
101. 16:15day yeah I agree I hope you enjoy this one  thanks for watching and we'll see you next
102. 16:22[Music] time