I bought 7g of raw Ethiopian black this past weekend. 3 stones and all have red flash as the main color. Im really excited to liberate them from the sand matrix and get started 😊. This vid helps immensely! Thank you!
if you bought stayish black opal they will all craze it very unstable and nothing you can do will change that as soon as the sand is gone they will start to crack
Such interesting material indeed. I will be trying so many things on these poor Ethiopian opals in the future since there is little to no consistency in the info about them! Plenty of wild ideas to be tested yet.
Cool. I've been sitting on some smaller welo pieces, because I wasn't sure if I'd be able to get em dry without cracks and crazing. Because the first piece I worked on crumbled to basically nothing after I worked it for a while with water, then sat it on my dresser in a plastic box for a week or more. So now I'm gonna put em in ziplock bags. Thanks.
Give it a try. Its VERY slow. After a week it only just started showing signs of drying out so apart from having a humidity chamber (which I could also try) I cant think of any way to slow it further.
That was a great video. I've never seen a drying process like that before. I got interested in Ethiopian many years ago and they all do seem to act differently.
@@RoysRocks I've been collecting and cabbing for many years. Years ago I got interested in opals, there wasn't many videos about it. I remember the first one I saw was Justin. It was difficult to get the equipment and tools you needed too. Now there are a lot of videos and sources for equipment. I also got interested in Koroit opal and started working with that material. I don't do as much as I use to due to health. I believe there are a few videos of Ethiopian Opal I did years ago. Google my name and Ethiopian Opal.
@@dannywileyinthemountains Oh cool I will hunt around and see... Oh yeah 7 years ago. Hopefully your health gets better and you can get right back into it where you left off.
Turned out excellent. Even Abit of broken honeycomb like pattern in there. Glad I decided to send a few pieces of Welo for you to experiment on. Sure it will help plenty of people in there budget Welo work. So many people say they just fall apart, which is odd to me. I mean the Shewa / chocolate opal does that, however I never had a Welo or even seen a Welo just break apart. Unless it had preexisting cracks and so on. Gotta scrutinize your Welo up close to see. Sure some crack in the drying process, though now I'm sure their will be alot less that do. Would be great if you made a breakthrough in Welo. That or maybe I just got lucky when buying those from the shows. Dave's material is pretty solid though.
I'll just have to keep testing and pushing these little stones to breaking point. Will be some cringeworthy tests coming up and I think many stones will be harmed in my Ethiopian opal testing series but it is all great for learning.
This is interesting. I have a stone that cracked in half while rough, I used the one half to cut my second stone. It had a yellowish color to start & through the process of cutting drying, cutting & drying out turned some wild colors. It's final dry is close to the original color just less transparent. I think when I get to the second half I'll try this to see if it changes anything. Thanks, great info as usual!
That sounds almost exactly like this stone. This is the one that turned Ethiopian opal around for me and now I have heaps to play with. It's fun to play with something new.
I was shown a much slower drying method, years ago, which was used on a similar Opal type from Virgin Valley, Nevada, USA., (which is notorious for crazing.). This finished stone is encased in a ball of wet clay. One needs to make sure that the thickness of the clay is twice the thickness of the stone. The clay ball is wrapped in wet newspaper, and left in a cool, dark, dry place for about a month. When the newspaper is removed, the clay should just crumble away, if all goes according to plan. The Opal should be dry, and stable.
Very interesting and I will have to save this idea for later. I'll have plenty of opal to try this on in the future, maybe even some virgin valley opal. Never heard of using a clay drying process before...
@@RoysRocks If you haven't seen the pulitzer opal video on this issue... He hypothesized that the increased surface area of an unpolished stone sped up the drying time, resulting in cracking. I think he had roughed out the shape and then decided to polish it dry a few days later. He didn't speak on the possibility of the water still in the opal (from the wet roughing out) expanding from the friction/heat generated from the water molecules getting all excited which I suspect was a second, contributing variable. If I had the time or a bunch of welo potch, I'd try a few treatments: rough out stones, let them dry, and then polish. 2 rough and polish wet at the same time and 3. Do what he did- rough out wet, let dry incompletely, and then polish dry. Of course, I would also avoid any dry work without significant extraction fans to avoid inhalation of polishing compound and silica particles. Also, about safety- I know it is a really bad idea to try to polish jewelry with gloves because of the potential for the wheel to grab the glove and take your hand along with it. There are little fingertip gloves for this purpose which will be taken by the wheel, leaving your hand. I have seen a few lapidaries? lapidarists? wearing gloves and it doesn't seem like a safe idea from my metalsmith/jewelry education.
Thats what I did with my Ethiopian. didnt use a Desicent pack tho. I just would open the bag bit, by bit. and it works great. i love the bag method. Need mor Ethiopian vids for sure. Im going down to Moab Utah in a few weeks Hopefully you'll have some Azurite mixed with Malachite to use with some pretty LR Jewelry Roy.
There will be more ethiopian opal cutting on the channel for sure. I will some pieces that I can torture with some wild testing. Seen some interesting stuff in online forums and I want to try all of them...
Is that hydrophane opal from Wallo Ethiopia? If so they’re pretty stable and have a relatively low incidence of cracking as long as you give them a decent cut and polish. You shouldn’t have to go through this lengthy period of worrying about them cracking. Now if it’s Ethiopian crystal opal and you dried it without cracking, congratulations!
Could have been either but if unsure better to be safe than sorry. There is no going back once its cracked and there is no need to rush. I've dried both with this method successfully so no harm in having some patience. I know it is a rare human trait these days.
Is that true? I have several and one of them almost immediately cracked/crazed when the water dried up. It literally happened right before my eyes… a fairly traumatic experience. 😂
@@Jonatron503 : Non-hydrophane Ethiopian opal is pretty much guaranteed to crack and craze if you let it dry out, and so it has to be stored in water. It can be taken out for short periods of time to appreciate, but it’s almost always too unstable to be turned into jewelry, although some people get lucky and cut gem quality material from it (although its long term stability is still highly questionable). That type of opal generally sells for between $0.50 to $2 per carat in rough form, but there are are some really coked up sellers who list it for as much as $1000 per carat on eBay and Etsy. Hydrophane Ethiopian opal is generally stable. If you buy Ethiopian opal and it’s dry when you get it and it isn’t full of cracks/crazing then it’s almost certainly the stable Hydrophane variety. When cutting and polishing ANY Ethiopian opal it’s critical to remove any sand as well as any visible cracks before letting the opal dry out again. Leaving those in a work-in-progress is a recipe for cracking as the opal dries. For that reason, don’t even wet a piece of Hydrophane rough unless you’re going to cut any sand inclusions and cracks off of it before letting it dry again.
No cracks no issues and it has survived temperatures above 50 Celsius out of the water with no special storage. Turns out the right Ethiopian is still really good material.
Hi Roy and fellow Opalites. I have been wondering how it was going with the stone. I am so lucky with all the lockdowns. At least I can go outside and mess around with the dogs and horses, so it doesn't do my head in. So many of you are stuck in the cities. I feel for you all. Take care everyone and I hope things improve for us all soon. 🙏♥️
Haha I've been leaving the house once a day to make deliveries to the post office for all the sintered burrs and nova points sales and thats it. Hopefully Adelaide in only 1 week of lockdown.
Because the additional health hazard of dry cutting is huge. I dont have a powerful extraction system to suck that silica dust away and thats a fast track method to silicosis.
So far this is the only method that has worked 100% of the time for me and another person that carves Ethiopian a lot more than me. For him it seems to be working on even shewa opal which would normally break apart.
@@RoysRocks How well does it work on stones that are 100-300 carats? I prefer specimens with matrix/inclusions still within the stone and not polished out, would those survive this method of drying or would they require a more delicate process?
@@koalabear4964 Thats tough to say. Some are quite stable as there are big dry chunks with plenty of matrix and inclusions however if you work them wet and go to dry them they may still crack. If there were inclusions you wanted to keep I'd lean towards leaving them in water (I have some in jars) or work it just a little dry and stop when happy. Dry cutting I am not a fan of but I do know many others are.
Not sure. They come out of the ground already semi hydrated so it would be a process of removing that water and somehow treating them to keep it that way. Much of the good Ethiopian opal just needs correct cutting and they are actually quite stable.
How can you tell if its a stone you can dry or not? I just got some from online they said is specimen grade and i was wondering if theres still any way to dry them
I'm drying just about any piece now so long as it is not soaked in oil. I'll even start experimenting with drying water opal because a few I have coached are doing it and even though everyone said it would fail... they are not cracking.
Recently i bougth 4 opals from ethyopia, and im wondering if Will be any way to dry the opals, i dont want to have all the time in a jar, my opals are of médium size about 30 grams each one, Thank you!!!
So if I got a Ethiopian ring and it gets wet say from washing hands, it cN crack unless I painstakingly slowly dry it out.... why not just cover it in resin to make it water proof.
You could cover it in resin (something that I will be trying in the future) but then it is a treated Ethiopian opal rather than a natural one which can effect the value significantly.
Yeah I thought about that too but all the Indonesian opal I have is in oil so I cant really test that for myself. Let me know how it goes. I think Indonesian opal has the highest water content so still might be affected to much.
@@RoysRocks actually, when you got Indonesian wood opal with oil on it, 100% it was treated. I mean, it didn't came with color on it. It was common wood opal, then they treated so the color appear. Some may sells natural wood opal without oil, and that's the real Indonesian wood opal 😊
The opal will always be crystal, if you want to make it no longer hydrophane (never soak in water) you would have to coat and seal it to block the pores.
@@RoysRocks I used edible water. About two hours. Indoor. After wiping the water, it is being stored in a zipper. Is it better to zip it up? Should I take it out?
@@고은주의고온주의 Sounds like it may have absorbed some of the ground particles or maybe it is just not dry yet. You need a good polish before it dries or it runs the risk of crazing/cracking.
I’m a bit confused as to why people say ethiopian opal is “unstable” and “cracks while drying”. I’m not claiming to be an expert but I have cut hundreds of Ethiopian opal and only had 3 crack after drying. 1 of them was early on and I had suspicions of a crack before I even finished cutting. The other 2 I have no doubt that I missed a very fine crack, because of how thin it started out and how I grew more and more sure there was a crack. The only thing I can imagine drying slow would change is whether the crack shows that day, or 9 months later.
In fact I’ve had the same number of australian opal “crack after” I finished the cutting process, which tells me it’s just about catching these things before cutting. I have worked with stayish opal which fortunately has given me some more experience chasing cracks, and may have made my eye a little more sharper and my mind a little more suspicious of cracks. Again I can be wrong, would love to chat w someone about it
I think Pulitzer opal has shown the phenomenon of Ethiopian opals tendency to react poorly to rapid drying in this video: ua-cam.com/video/njq0KrfPINQ/v-deo.html I'm with him on the thought that if you go all the way through to a polish the results are much better and safer for the stone. Unlike Aus opal which you can safely dry between each grit stage. Of course some Ethiopian opal can't be dried under any circumstances but those I avoid nowadays. Though I was gifted a few which live in glass domes with water. An old Ethiopian expert I have talked with a few times says the true best way to avoid it is to never expose it to water by cutting and polishing dry but thats a bit risky for me and you need to handle the dust and heat. An Australian opal shouldn't crack during drying. They can craze if exposed to direct sunlight for a long time though.
Does anyone have any advice for a really small Ethiopian opal that went clear? My engagement ring has a ~3mm stone. It was milky white with some red & green-ish streaks visible in the light. Several weeks ago I got it wet with something, somehow, and it turned completely clear. I’ve left it alone or in the box but ever since then, it hasn’t gone back to normal. It might turn yellow & sometimes I see the red streaks again, but then it’s back to clear/glassy and it just refuses to become opaque. I’m kinda sad about it, any help is appreciated !
How long have you been working with this and have you had any of it turn yellow? Often customers are blamed for this since the opal is hydrophane, but there are accounts of people who just kept their stuff in a box because they were too afraid to wear it, and a lapidary who had a stone he cut turn dark brown after several years, so while I am sure some people have inadvertently contaminated their stones, it seems that even some properly cared for stones have yellowed.
I haven't worked with much Ethiopian so not the best person to ask but the ones that have been successful have not changed since I cut them. Will be interesting to keep an eye on them too see if they go brown.
Ive had Ethiopian Welo cabisions and and rough in my collection for over two and a half years. None of them have changed color on me. I used to have this same fear but none of my stones have changed color for me even the ones I wore for a year now. I'm not saying it cant happen but this is my experience. I have wondered If there's a possibility of places that have a higher iron content in the water that could possibly leave the opal rust stained when drying out. Kinda like some old sink and bathtubs that get a rust build up but I have no idea
@@eldiablomanatee1 Hello, your idea of iron in some water places is very interesting. Do you know where I could learn more ? All of my welo opal pendants were in a box for 5-6 years. They were white/grey base color and some translucent. After few years, all of them became yellow. Some people say it’s because of the oil (sebum) from wearing them that change the white base color to yellow.
i seen another youtuber (cant remember name) that was really sure that by saturating it with minereal oil and then let it dry slowly (idk how) was 100% cracks and craze free.. i dont have the source but trying could be interesting notheless
also should do some real test with a humidity reader in the jar when drying from water.. maybe slowly drop down humidity 10% a week inside a box with controlled athmosphere
I'm trying to avoid any oil at all costs but later on I may experiment with it. I do have access to a humidity chamber but I dont really want to do much testing that others cant replicate easily at home to begin with. Will keep it simple so others can try for themselves for now.
@@RoysRocks i mean, a humidity chamber is just fancy words for a jar and boveda packs/ other kinds of dessicant with a hygrometer, a setup worth 15$.. or even a small dehumidifier in a box, 40$..
@@franezdiy I think it I were to do it as a serious test I would go all out and use a proper stable humidity chamber and get some real data from it. Maybe even cycle it a few times and see if that hurts the stone. Otherwise its not much different to a zip lock bag with desiccant just roughly measured.
@@RoysRocks Btw just dried a 10ct carved welo 24hr at 60% rh and then 12hr at 40%rh... just by putting it on the exit breeze of a dehumidifier, no crazing no cracks, maybe could do it even a couple of days longer.. atmosphere rh was like 75% 30°..
I have wondered what a few sealing treatments would to to this sort of opal. I will have a series on treatments for all types of opal in the near future.
@@neilhamill318 Haha I just like to experiment and chill out polishing my opals. I've already developed 2 polishing powders but dont want to call them "Roys Rocks cerium oxide/aluminum oxide". One day I'll come up with a good name for them...
Ah its okay we all start somewhere. The first ones I played with on the channel died as well since they had to be kept in oil though even that is not 100% true. They are an interesting stone with some strange behaviors. Fun to learn though.
I barely touched it at that stage? I think you are missing the weeks between the stage where I was avoiding making contact and when it was fully dried so was happy to manipulate it. Within this 7 minute video was about a month of time passing.
@@RoysRocks well, one year later and I am eating those words. lol. I still have several rough pieces but the two I have cut are pretty amazing (even though stone number two has transformed into five stones).
All from the same field? If you soak and dry them without cutting/carving they tend to be okay. The problem comes when you work them wet then dry them before you they are ready.
This is by far the best video on Ethiopian opal out there..so informative and inspirational to watch
Keep it up ma guy Roy
Hopefully many more to come like it as I test the material to death. Want to see what is true and what is myth. 🧐
I bought 7g of raw Ethiopian black this past weekend. 3 stones and all have red flash as the main color. Im really excited to liberate them from the sand matrix and get started 😊.
This vid helps immensely! Thank you!
Good luck Joey. Hopefully you can scrub them up and give them a good polish.
if you bought stayish black opal they will all craze it very unstable and nothing you can do will change that as soon as the sand is gone they will start to crack
How interesting!! It seems every stone is a gamble haha. Great idea with the desiccator!
Such interesting material indeed. I will be trying so many things on these poor Ethiopian opals in the future since there is little to no consistency in the info about them! Plenty of wild ideas to be tested yet.
Nice! Glad to see the progress on this little piece and cannot wait to see the testing you will do on some of the other unfortunate pieces!
Frankenstein's got nothing on me... 👾
Cool.
I've been sitting on some smaller welo pieces, because I wasn't sure if I'd be able to get em dry without cracks and crazing. Because the first piece I worked on crumbled to basically nothing after I worked it for a while with water, then sat it on my dresser in a plastic box for a week or more. So now I'm gonna put em in ziplock bags. Thanks.
Give it a try. Its VERY slow. After a week it only just started showing signs of drying out so apart from having a humidity chamber (which I could also try) I cant think of any way to slow it further.
@@RoysRocks just cut about 6. Stuck em in a bag. Looking forward to seeing what happens.
@@redeyestones3738 Definitely let m know how if goes.
@@RoysRocks will do
Are there any known techniques for successfully drying or stabilizing American opals from Nevada?
I have not tried but I am sure if you go down the stabilising route it is certainly possible.
That was a great video. I've never seen a drying process like that before. I got interested in Ethiopian many years ago and they all do seem to act differently.
They seem to act wildly differently so I'll have to repeat this a few times to see how consistent it will be at protecting the opal.
@@RoysRocks I have really enjoyed watching your videos. You have inspired me to start carving again.
@@dannywileyinthemountains Its a great hobby why did you stop in the past?
@@RoysRocks I've been collecting and cabbing for many years. Years ago I got interested in opals, there wasn't many videos about it. I remember the first one I saw was Justin. It was difficult to get the equipment and tools you needed too. Now there are a lot of videos and sources for equipment. I also got interested in Koroit opal and started working with that material. I don't do as much as I use to due to health. I believe there are a few videos of Ethiopian Opal I did years ago. Google my name and Ethiopian Opal.
@@dannywileyinthemountains Oh cool I will hunt around and see... Oh yeah 7 years ago.
Hopefully your health gets better and you can get right back into it where you left off.
Turned out excellent. Even Abit of broken honeycomb like pattern in there. Glad I decided to send a few pieces of Welo for you to experiment on. Sure it will help plenty of people in there budget Welo work. So many people say they just fall apart, which is odd to me. I mean the Shewa / chocolate opal does that, however I never had a Welo or even seen a Welo just break apart. Unless it had preexisting cracks and so on. Gotta scrutinize your Welo up close to see. Sure some crack in the drying process, though now I'm sure their will be alot less that do. Would be great if you made a breakthrough in Welo. That or maybe I just got lucky when buying those from the shows. Dave's material is pretty solid though.
I'll just have to keep testing and pushing these little stones to breaking point. Will be some cringeworthy tests coming up and I think many stones will be harmed in my Ethiopian opal testing series but it is all great for learning.
Nice way, thanks for sharing, I will give it a try, have a bunch of crystal opal but dindt know how to go without crazes after all. Thanks again.
Good luck and I hope it works out for you. Been perfect with all my Ethiopian so far.
This is interesting. I have a stone that cracked in half while rough, I used the one half to cut my second stone. It had a yellowish color to start & through the process of cutting drying, cutting & drying out turned some wild colors. It's final dry is close to the original color just less transparent. I think when I get to the second half I'll try this to see if it changes anything. Thanks, great info as usual!
That sounds almost exactly like this stone. This is the one that turned Ethiopian opal around for me and now I have heaps to play with. It's fun to play with something new.
Is this a specimen non-hydrophane opal? I have a bunch of them and I want to try your method
This one is fully hydrophane.
The same method has had surprising success with other varieties of Ethiopian opal though.
I was shown a much slower drying method, years ago, which was used on a similar Opal type from Virgin Valley, Nevada, USA., (which is notorious for crazing.).
This finished stone is encased in a ball of wet clay. One needs to make sure that the thickness of the clay is twice the thickness of the stone.
The clay ball is wrapped in wet newspaper, and left in a cool, dark, dry place for about a month.
When the newspaper is removed, the clay should just crumble away, if all goes according to plan. The Opal should be dry, and stable.
Very interesting and I will have to save this idea for later. I'll have plenty of opal to try this on in the future, maybe even some virgin valley opal.
Never heard of using a clay drying process before...
@@RoysRocks If you haven't seen the pulitzer opal video on this issue... He hypothesized that the increased surface area of an unpolished stone sped up the drying time, resulting in cracking. I think he had roughed out the shape and then decided to polish it dry a few days later. He didn't speak on the possibility of the water still in the opal (from the wet roughing out) expanding from the friction/heat generated from the water molecules getting all excited which I suspect was a second, contributing variable. If I had the time or a bunch of welo potch, I'd try a few treatments: rough out stones, let them dry, and then polish. 2 rough and polish wet at the same time and 3. Do what he did- rough out wet, let dry incompletely, and then polish dry. Of course, I would also avoid any dry work without significant extraction fans to avoid inhalation of polishing compound and silica particles. Also, about safety- I know it is a really bad idea to try to polish jewelry with gloves because of the potential for the wheel to grab the glove and take your hand along with it. There are little fingertip gloves for this purpose which will be taken by the wheel, leaving your hand. I have seen a few lapidaries? lapidarists? wearing gloves and it doesn't seem like a safe idea from my metalsmith/jewelry education.
Interesting read. Thanks
What type of clay is used
Thats what I did with my Ethiopian. didnt use a Desicent pack tho. I just would open the bag bit, by bit. and it works great. i love the bag method. Need mor Ethiopian vids for sure. Im going down to Moab Utah in a few weeks Hopefully you'll have some Azurite mixed with Malachite to use with some pretty LR Jewelry Roy.
There will be more ethiopian opal cutting on the channel for sure. I will some pieces that I can torture with some wild testing. Seen some interesting stuff in online forums and I want to try all of them...
Is that hydrophane opal from Wallo Ethiopia? If so they’re pretty stable and have a relatively low incidence of cracking as long as you give them a decent cut and polish. You shouldn’t have to go through this lengthy period of worrying about them cracking. Now if it’s Ethiopian crystal opal and you dried it without cracking, congratulations!
Could have been either but if unsure better to be safe than sorry. There is no going back once its cracked and there is no need to rush. I've dried both with this method successfully so no harm in having some patience. I know it is a rare human trait these days.
Is that true? I have several and one of them almost immediately cracked/crazed when the water dried up. It literally happened right before my eyes… a fairly traumatic experience. 😂
@@Jonatron503 : Non-hydrophane Ethiopian opal is pretty much guaranteed to crack and craze if you let it dry out, and so it has to be stored in water. It can be taken out for short periods of time to appreciate, but it’s almost always too unstable to be turned into jewelry, although some people get lucky and cut gem quality material from it (although its long term stability is still highly questionable). That type of opal generally sells for between $0.50 to $2 per carat in rough form, but there are are some really coked up sellers who list it for as much as $1000 per carat on eBay and Etsy.
Hydrophane Ethiopian opal is generally stable. If you buy Ethiopian opal and it’s dry when you get it and it isn’t full of cracks/crazing then it’s almost certainly the stable Hydrophane variety. When cutting and polishing ANY Ethiopian opal it’s critical to remove any sand as well as any visible cracks before letting the opal dry out again. Leaving those in a work-in-progress is a recipe for cracking as the opal dries. For that reason, don’t even wet a piece of Hydrophane rough unless you’re going to cut any sand inclusions and cracks off of it before letting it dry again.
@@______IV those are great tips! Thank you so much!
nice tutorial! will this work on a larger welo opal like 30ct?
Im not sure I have done any 30ct+ stones but Mike in the USA has tried and had 100% success so far and he cuts a lot of welo opal compared to me.
Thank you Roy !!
No worries Yoram. Happy to test out any method I see.
@@RoysRocks that's the only way to learn.
@@yoramuziel1695 100% correct my friend.
Hey men! Great video! Do you still have the stone? How is looking now, after 1 year? No cracks?
No cracks no issues and it has survived temperatures above 50 Celsius out of the water with no special storage.
Turns out the right Ethiopian is still really good material.
How’s this piece doing M8
My Mexican and Ethiopian pieces I carved almost 15 months ago,with a week dry ZipLock method..so far no cracks,just beauty
This one seems to have fully survived the drying process unharmed.
Hi Roy and fellow Opalites. I have been wondering how it was going with the stone. I am so lucky with all the lockdowns. At least I can go outside and mess around with the dogs and horses, so it doesn't do my head in. So many of you are stuck in the cities. I feel for you all. Take care everyone and I hope things improve for us all soon. 🙏♥️
Haha I've been leaving the house once a day to make deliveries to the post office for all the sintered burrs and nova points sales and thats it. Hopefully Adelaide in only 1 week of lockdown.
Lol I think I bought something from you off eBay. Glad to see you actually work with opals
I dont think I have ever sold anything on ebay before?
I have an ebay account but it is just for buying back in the day.
@@RoysRocks lol Sorry the name is Ron’s not Roy🤣
Why don't you keep it from getting wet in the first place? I read that some cutters do it dry to prevent it cracking.
Because the additional health hazard of dry cutting is huge.
I dont have a powerful extraction system to suck that silica dust away and thats a fast track method to silicosis.
Roy what types methods do we have with respect of drying wet opal.
So far this is the only method that has worked 100% of the time for me and another person that carves Ethiopian a lot more than me. For him it seems to be working on even shewa opal which would normally break apart.
@@RoysRocks How well does it work on stones that are 100-300 carats? I prefer specimens with matrix/inclusions still within the stone and not polished out, would those survive this method of drying or would they require a more delicate process?
@@koalabear4964 Thats tough to say. Some are quite stable as there are big dry chunks with plenty of matrix and inclusions however if you work them wet and go to dry them they may still crack. If there were inclusions you wanted to keep I'd lean towards leaving them in water (I have some in jars) or work it just a little dry and stop when happy. Dry cutting I am not a fan of but I do know many others are.
Is it possible to stabilize Opal by infusing helium or other inert gas to prevent water absorption in the first place?
Not sure. They come out of the ground already semi hydrated so it would be a process of removing that water and somehow treating them to keep it that way. Much of the good Ethiopian opal just needs correct cutting and they are actually quite stable.
How can you tell if its a stone you can dry or not? I just got some from online they said is specimen grade and i was wondering if theres still any way to dry them
I'm drying just about any piece now so long as it is not soaked in oil.
I'll even start experimenting with drying water opal because a few I have coached are doing it and even though everyone said it would fail... they are not cracking.
@@RoysRocks can you dry the raw form or does it need to be polished ? All sand off ?
Roy what type of polishing compound do you use on this type of opal.
Diamond paste or high grit nova points (basically the same thing, diamond in resin).
I will show what happens with other methods in future videos.
I have an opal ring and now it is brown what do I do to fix that
Depends on the type of opal and setting. Feel free to send me a picture through email or facebook (links in description of any video).
Thanks. This was great. Very helpful
No worries. This method continues to work for me on 100% of stones so far.
Recently i bougth 4 opals from ethyopia, and im wondering if Will be any way to dry the opals, i dont want to have all the time in a jar, my opals are of médium size about 30 grams each one,
Thank you!!!
Depends on the type of Ethiopian opal they are. Only some must stay in water.
So if I got a Ethiopian ring and it gets wet say from washing hands, it cN crack unless I painstakingly slowly dry it out.... why not just cover it in resin to make it water proof.
I think when it came in a ring, it'll more stable than when it rough. Coz i've one and never seen a crack
You could cover it in resin (something that I will be trying in the future) but then it is a treated Ethiopian opal rather than a natural one which can effect the value significantly.
I think it may work with some of my Indonesian opal to. Thanks Roy😊😊
Yeah I thought about that too but all the Indonesian opal I have is in oil so I cant really test that for myself. Let me know how it goes. I think Indonesian opal has the highest water content so still might be affected to much.
@@RoysRocks yeah, most of Indonesian treat it with oil, mostly wood opal. Have you got some Indonesian crystal opal?
Maybe it coz from where it mine. Indonesian opal mine mostly on wet ground, while Aussie on a desert
@@tangansaktiabi No only wood opal at the moment.
@@RoysRocks actually, when you got Indonesian wood opal with oil on it, 100% it was treated. I mean, it didn't came with color on it. It was common wood opal, then they treated so the color appear.
Some may sells natural wood opal without oil, and that's the real Indonesian wood opal 😊
As usual Roy excellent content.
Thanks Greg. Easier when things seem to work. More to come...
@@RoysRocks today first opal through the stages then cerium polish stokedamoondoed with the results.
@@gregbrett6076 Oh sounds good! Well done. First of many to come.
How to fix opal to be crystal forever?
The opal will always be crystal, if you want to make it no longer hydrophane (never soak in water) you would have to coat and seal it to block the pores.
@@RoysRocks thank you for reply, any advice for natural treatment to block the pores?
I bought opal. Grind the jewels. And discolored. The glow disappeared. What should I do? This is Opal, Ethiopia.
Ah yes Ethiopian opal can do that. When it dried did it go cloudy? Also what did you grind with and did you use water?
@@RoysRocks I used edible water. About two hours. Indoor. After wiping the water, it is being stored in a zipper. Is it better to zip it up? Should I take it out?
@@고은주의고온주의 Sounds like it may have absorbed some of the ground particles or maybe it is just not dry yet. You need a good polish before it dries or it runs the risk of crazing/cracking.
I’m a bit confused as to why people say ethiopian opal is “unstable” and “cracks while drying”. I’m not claiming to be an expert but I have cut hundreds of Ethiopian opal and only had 3 crack after drying. 1 of them was early on and I had suspicions of a crack before I even finished cutting. The other 2 I have no doubt that I missed a very fine crack, because of how thin it started out and how I grew more and more sure there was a crack. The only thing I can imagine drying slow would change is whether the crack shows that day, or 9 months later.
In fact I’ve had the same number of australian opal “crack after” I finished the cutting process, which tells me it’s just about catching these things before cutting. I have worked with stayish opal which fortunately has given me some more experience chasing cracks, and may have made my eye a little more sharper and my mind a little more suspicious of cracks. Again I can be wrong, would love to chat w someone about it
I think Pulitzer opal has shown the phenomenon of Ethiopian opals tendency to react poorly to rapid drying in this video: ua-cam.com/video/njq0KrfPINQ/v-deo.html
I'm with him on the thought that if you go all the way through to a polish the results are much better and safer for the stone. Unlike Aus opal which you can safely dry between each grit stage. Of course some Ethiopian opal can't be dried under any circumstances but those I avoid nowadays. Though I was gifted a few which live in glass domes with water.
An old Ethiopian expert I have talked with a few times says the true best way to avoid it is to never expose it to water by cutting and polishing dry but thats a bit risky for me and you need to handle the dust and heat.
An Australian opal shouldn't crack during drying. They can craze if exposed to direct sunlight for a long time though.
Does anyone have any advice for a really small Ethiopian opal that went clear? My engagement ring has a ~3mm stone. It was milky white with some red & green-ish streaks visible in the light. Several weeks ago I got it wet with something, somehow, and it turned completely clear. I’ve left it alone or in the box but ever since then, it hasn’t gone back to normal. It might turn yellow & sometimes I see the red streaks again, but then it’s back to clear/glassy and it just refuses to become opaque. I’m kinda sad about it, any help is appreciated !
Try putting it in a ziplock bag with desiccant for a few days. Really draws out that last little bit of water for my stones.
@@RoysRocks tysm for the reply! I’ll try that
How long have you been working with this and have you had any of it turn yellow? Often customers are blamed for this since the opal is hydrophane, but there are accounts of people who just kept their stuff in a box because they were too afraid to wear it, and a lapidary who had a stone he cut turn dark brown after several years, so while I am sure some people have inadvertently contaminated their stones, it seems that even some properly cared for stones have yellowed.
I haven't worked with much Ethiopian so not the best person to ask but the ones that have been successful have not changed since I cut them.
Will be interesting to keep an eye on them too see if they go brown.
Ive had Ethiopian Welo cabisions and and rough in my collection for over two and a half years. None of them have changed color on me. I used to have this same fear but none of my stones have changed color for me even the ones I wore for a year now. I'm not saying it cant happen but this is my experience.
I have wondered If there's a possibility of places that have a higher iron content in the water that could possibly leave the opal rust stained when drying out. Kinda like some old sink and bathtubs that get a rust build up but I have no idea
@@eldiablomanatee1 Hello, your idea of iron in some water places is very interesting. Do you know where I could learn more ? All of my welo opal pendants were in a box for 5-6 years. They were white/grey base color and some translucent. After few years, all of them became yellow. Some people say it’s because of the oil (sebum) from wearing them that change the white base color to yellow.
how do u get out all the scratches :(
You can see how this stone was cut in this video: ua-cam.com/video/hKp1hvWKISs/v-deo.html
I bet thus stone hasn’t crazed or cracked up till now
Nah it is still looking good. I reckon I will set it one day to really test it out.
i seen another youtuber (cant remember name) that was really sure that by saturating it with minereal oil and then let it dry slowly (idk how) was 100% cracks and craze free.. i dont have the source but trying could be interesting notheless
also should do some real test with a humidity reader in the jar when drying from water.. maybe slowly drop down humidity 10% a week inside a box with controlled athmosphere
I'm trying to avoid any oil at all costs but later on I may experiment with it.
I do have access to a humidity chamber but I dont really want to do much testing that others cant replicate easily at home to begin with. Will keep it simple so others can try for themselves for now.
@@RoysRocks i mean, a humidity chamber is just fancy words for a jar and boveda packs/ other kinds of dessicant with a hygrometer, a setup worth 15$.. or even a small dehumidifier in a box, 40$..
@@franezdiy I think it I were to do it as a serious test I would go all out and use a proper stable humidity chamber and get some real data from it. Maybe even cycle it a few times and see if that hurts the stone.
Otherwise its not much different to a zip lock bag with desiccant just roughly measured.
@@RoysRocks Btw just dried a 10ct carved welo 24hr at 60% rh and then 12hr at 40%rh... just by putting it on the exit breeze of a dehumidifier, no crazing no cracks, maybe could do it even a couple of days longer..
atmosphere rh was like 75% 30°..
Beautiful
Thanks Stanley 👌👍
I wonder if it was sprayed with a 2K clear spray paint at a stage of colour you like would it remain that way.
I have wondered what a few sealing treatments would to to this sort of opal. I will have a series on treatments for all types of opal in the near future.
@@RoysRocks With your education who knows what could happen.
Might see in the near future Roy's Rocks Gem Sealer. 😁. Seriously.
@@neilhamill318 Haha I just like to experiment and chill out polishing my opals. I've already developed 2 polishing powders but dont want to call them "Roys Rocks cerium oxide/aluminum oxide". One day I'll come up with a good name for them...
I was uneducated and mine cracked thus here I am. Luckily it wasn't expensive and when I broke it in half new.color can be seen
Ah its okay we all start somewhere. The first ones I played with on the channel died as well since they had to be kept in oil though even that is not 100% true.
They are an interesting stone with some strange behaviors. Fun to learn though.
What happens if it gets wet again 😅
We will find out...
"I don't want the oils from my fingers to affect it"... proceeds to flip it over and touch it multiple times 😂
I barely touched it at that stage?
I think you are missing the weeks between the stage where I was avoiding making contact and when it was fully dried so was happy to manipulate it.
Within this 7 minute video was about a month of time passing.
put a sample piece into a bag of rice
Rice would work fine but a little dirtier than silica gel desiccant.
Great color, but the drying is the one reason I'll probably never touch Ethiopian opal.
Yeah its a funny stone and I dont blame you.
Much nicer to just cut polish and not even think about drying issues with an Australian opal.
@@RoysRocks well, one year later and I am eating those words. lol. I still have several rough pieces but the two I have cut are pretty amazing (even though stone number two has transformed into five stones).
i have soaked welo opal many times and let them dry on a plate in room temp, i never had a single one crazing since 2010
All from the same field? If you soak and dry them without cutting/carving they tend to be okay.
The problem comes when you work them wet then dry them before you they are ready.