Risk vs. Reward: Cutting a 161 ct Rough Coober Pedy Opal Gemstone

I take a beautiful "problem" opal and somehow manage to get some decent finished opal cabochons out of it.

If you just want to see the results, skip to the end!

PRICES
The rough opal cost in the mid four-figure range in 2014. The finished products (large and small stones) were sold for about 30% more than the rough opal cost. The "scraps" are mine to use as I see fit.

CUTTING vs. NOT CUTTING:
I truly appreciate all of the comments, both positive and negative. I apologize for possibly misleading you guys about the quality of the rough stone.. At the beginning of the video I have photos of all six sides of the rough stone. Five sides of it either have major flaws or lots of sand and potch. Unfortunately, the "good side" is shown TWICE, so it may appear that the high-grade material extended all the way through to the opposite side. That was not the case: From the start of the video, the first 18 seconds are all of the "good side." The true opposite side can be seen at the 41-45 second mark.

A number of comments mention that I "wasted a lot of good opal." First of all, I would like to mention that until you have actually held a large, expensive opal, you cannot appreciate the difficulty that you may encounter in cutting it.

As many experienced opal cutters know, the yield (percentage of usable opal obtained from rough) for all precious opal ranges from 10 to 50 percent (on average). Some rough may yield as much as 70 percent or more; but because it is easy to detect "high-yield" opal, the seller will price it higher! The stone is the video is severely flawed, by any measure. My yield for this stone was 24.8% (40 carats of 161 carats).

The majority of high-grade opal that was truly "wasted" was the opal that was "lost" in making oval, rather than free-form cabochons. For those who know the "loose stone" opal market, oval stones cost roughly 20-25% more than free-form cabochons. I wasted about 7-10 carats of high-grade opal (25% of the total yield; 6% of the 161 ct rough). [The two customers who ordered the pendants actually REQUESTED oval cabochons, and they paid the "oval cabochon" price]. Most of the material that was truly "wasted" was either sandstone matrix, or severely flawed or very potchy opal. Small pockets of high-grade opal that I cut through had to be sacrificed in order to find the main area of high grade material. An additional 10-20 carats of low-grade opal cabochons COULD have been made from this rough, but in my work, I have no demand for low-grade opal. (I personally like the lower grades, but my customers apparently do not!)

I try to plan the cutting of an opal as well as possible, but sometimes, the cutting does not go as expected. Even high-yield opal (which this stone was not) usually have unexpected and disappointing flaws. After all of the great opal that I have cut, it is still find it unnerving to start cutting an expensive piece of opal.

I should note that although the rough specimen looked nice on one side, it is by no means a "museum specimen." I personally collect opal that is TOO GOOD TO CUT and I DO NOT cut it. This one was NOT in that category. If you would like to see an example of a "TO GOOD TO CUT" stone, please see my video: https://youtu.be/vtWaYw5a5Lc

Thanks for all of your comments and support!

Видео Risk vs. Reward: Cutting a 161 ct Rough Coober Pedy Opal Gemstone канала Pulitzer Opal