Australian Rough Opals Cut & Polished With Dremel- Success or Not

Описание: I recently purchased 10 Australian rough opals. I cut and polished them with a Dremel rotary tool using a flex shaft. I used diamond bits and burs including Nova bits and polished with Cerium oxide on felt. I got them from the Black Opal Direct Company of Australia. Note that I cut mostly freeform shapes. I was initially surprised and disappointed with all the sand and impurities. But in the end I got 3 or 4 nice stones but only after a lot of work. But it was a valuable learning experience. Was it a success or not? That is depending on the value of the finished stones. It is difficult to find guidelines on how to price opals. I would appreciate if anyone could give me a general idea of the value of the finished stones in the video. Working with opals is an exciting experience. You never know if the next cut is going to bring a flash of color or cause a flash of color to disappear.
For anyone interested to know which rough opals turned into the 4 best cut opals look at the opening scene photo with the numbers. and then go to the scene where I explain the stones. In the top row are the best and from left to right the rough stones were #4 then #10 then #9 and the 3rd row the mountain was #5. Watch until the end of the video to see what I did to finish that stone.