g'day and welcome to Black Opal direct my name's Justin and this is my son Saxon how
you doing I'm good [Music] um a couple of weeks ago we had a lesson on how to cut an
opal and Saxon did a really good job at polishing a piece of Potch and while pocha's nice to
learn on it's not really a piece of color so what I've got today is a piece of color
for Saxon and um you're going to let me know what you think you're going to do without
any guidance all right so after the after two minutes of vigorously studying the stone
um I've come to the conclusion that I have no clue what I'm doing but I'll give it a
crack anyway so I've got the the gem torch to start off with gonna have a look for any
sand inclusions in the in the gem itself and it looks like it's pretty clean and shouldn't
cause us too much trouble but it's it's pretty deep the color so I should maybe be out of
a bit of a a high Dome Stone out of it um I don't think it'll be very big about probably
end up being without a carrot knowing my talent but we'll give it a crack anyway but um so
with the stone um because it's got a back on it like it has what what do you think you
would do that back
I don't know can you tell me well I want you to I want you to figure that out first I mean
is it Potch or is it sand or is it um something that you would want to keep on the opal or
whether you want to take it off uh I'll take it off a little bit but it looks like it'll
a lot of it will stay it's something that I'll probably figure out while doing it yeah
radio well do you want my opinion yep because this piece is nice Crystal opal sitting on
top of some Sandstone you want to take all the inclusions off which is all the sandstones
so you've got yourself a nice Crystal and just play of color so it'll be a nice glassy
Stone that's what I would do the back of this Stone because it's Sandy you can break it
off and it's not very sturdy so if that was to sit on the back of a stone and it got set
it could break the Sandstone off the back all right so I would be cleaning it fully
off and make it a nice full silica gem so would you recommend that I do that first or
towards the end so should I start shaping it first or start with getting all the sand
off so that I know what I actually have to work with yeah you take the sand off first
all right let's go and have a look
when you first start out on a rubbing wheel with a piece of opal it takes a long time
for your fingers to be able to hold the stone naturally and easily with a flowing motion
and I wouldn't get too frustrated if it doesn't work straight away because it can take many
many years of practice [Music]
Saxon is doing really well here by using all of his fingers to control the stone sometimes
you can have a finger leading astray or hanging out and it's not doing anything or giving
the stone any help and that's really important that you keep fingers as close as possible
to the stone so that you can control it there's also the challenge of wearing your fingers
down the more you touch the wheel the more you wear your skin off and you can bump your
knuckles which hurts quite a bit but more to the point if you just keep rubbing all
day long you will find that the points of your fingers start to wear away to the point
where you can start bleeding after a while if you were cutting all day long so there
is a bit of a challenge there as well to be able to master that
[Music]
[Music] You'll notice here that Saxon's left pointer finger disappears now his right pointer
finger is disappearing and what he's trying to do is avoid touching the wheel with his
fingers but if you become good at this game you need those pointer fingers more than anything
to be able to control the stone [Music]
because this is taking quite a while I fast-forwarded this bit just so that we can get through the
shaping game it is taking suction a little bit longer than it would a normal opal cutter
only because he's just beginning but he's getting a really good shape and a really good
idea of the best way to cut this Stone and while it's not perfect it will be good enough
to put on a dopstick for what we're doing
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[Music]
one thing that might be obvious to some but not to others is using the right dopstick
size for the stone that you are about to cut so if you have a too big a top stick and you
put a stone on the top of it and the wax and everything sits around the outside of the
stone you can't control polishing the edges very well so we've got quite a few Stone dot
sticks here to choose from and Saxon which one do you reckon we should use for this size
Stone I'm going to go for the smallest one would that be would that be the right choice
correct all right let's do it then alrighty
okay I really don't need to say much here I think you already know what this means to
me
you might want to do the top stick first oh yeah good idea
get ready to wet your fingers [Music]
yeah it is extremely hot I usually stop before it starts to Bubble as soon as the wax starts
to Bubble it's gonna stick to your fingers no matter whether it's wet or not so yeah
you're good you're done you've done great you don't need to do any push drops beautiful
it's good [Music]
let's try it again too much
so I reckon with the wax just push it back up and with the wax you only need to heat
it half as much as you did all right
[Music]
looking straight down at the stone to get your shapes of utmost importance when you
are shaping a stone Saxon has heard me say this so many times that he didn't even need
me to say it to him he knew what to do straight away
even though Saxon's cutting style is a little bit awkward he has the basis of a very good
cutter so he has the chance or the potential to become very good and if you started cutting
like this then give yourself a pat on the back because you also have the potential to
be able to cut really well the Dome is wonky on one side so you'll need to come in and
take more off one side than the other
once you get that shape perfect yeah so right now you're still taking Stone off the whole
Stone as you're turning you want to just take a little bit off the lumpy side so instead
of going round and round around just take a little bit off the lumpy side yep like that
and then you should be able to get a nice Dome [Music] [Applause]
what's up you happy with that beautiful nice high Dome again like the last Stone you cut
I'm getting a beautiful Dome [Music] I don't think you're doing to do too much more
Because by the sounds of what I can hear what how much you're pushing on that wheel is telling
me that you're taking probably a little bit too much for where you are the stages of cutting
all right
I reckon we move to the next wheel good to go
I eat something I've noticed but when you started on the side we didn't actually go
right again
[Music]
thank you [Music] [Applause]
this little cutting session is the beginning of a very very long journey into opal and
to be able to cut gemstones from different opal fields and cut them differently because
every opal field is very very different and to know how and why Opals cut the way they
do is some of the biggest challenges you'll ever face when it comes to gemstone cutting
and shapes and polishes are some of the easiest things to do so while it is great that is
Saxon is on the journey he has a lot to learn about everything that my dad taught me when
we work together buying and selling and cutting opal
right what do you think your health well do you think you did I think the domes pretty
good on it um at the bottom it comes in a bit maybe could have done something better
there with that little inclusion there but yeah
well I think you've got a really nice Dome you've put a really great polish on it there's
not a lot of scratches or if any scratches on that nice Dome the back of the stone because
it's so uneven it looks like it's out of shape but it's actually not too bad what I always
like to do is make sure that that back is even and the sides are even when I before
I've even put it on a dopstick so that once I've finished a stone I can see that it's
perfectly shaped that back because it it undulates up and down it makes the stone have the appearance
of not having a nice shape but once once you do the back on it and even it up which is
a little bit harder to do when it's wonky but when it's even it's easier but once we
get that that back done it'll look like a nice round so I I obviously put it on the
dopstick earlier on because I don't have the skills with my fingers but I suppose that
just shows the difference between a beginner cutter and someone that has a bit of experience
like yourself well done it's very good [Music]
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