what we're talking about today is opal fossils
and whether you should cut an opal fossil if it has color in it or not
today we're working on or we're talking about opal fossils and whether it's worthwhile cutting an
opal fossil or whether you should leave the fossil as a fossil for its own certain value so where are
opal fossils found there's an ancient Inland Sea around us the the opal fields of Australia and all
of these opal fields are found on the edges of this ancient Inland Sea now that's sea wherever
there's fossils most of the fossils found are either Crustaceans or shell shellfish or animals
that live in water or near the water that have been buried underground through sediment once
that organic matter or that shell or whatever breaks down into nothing it leaves a cavity
where the opal was and then silica spheres drip down into that cavity and fill up and make the
shape of that fossil so so for instance we have shell fossils and yabby buttons and turtle bones
and all sorts of things that did live near that water's edge that we can find as a fossil made
from opal or turned into opal so the question I am answering today is when an opal fossil has
beautiful gem color in it is it worth cutting that piece of opal that is a fossil into a gem because
the color in it is so beautiful and the answer to that is sometimes it is worth it but if you're a a
scientist or a palaeontologist and you're looking for fossils in an area you would not even have in
your mind the thought of cutting up a beautiful fossil because it's it's comes from 110 million
years ago and it Formed into one beautiful shape of the animal that was there that time ago so
you wouldn't really want to cut up that but when you're an opal Miner and you dig up
something like a big shell this big and it's got beautiful gem color bar going right through it
the weighing up between the fossil with the color in it or a top beautiful gemstone is
where you have to factor it all in okay because this gemstone that you cut could
possibly cut a 10 carat hundred thousand dollar stone or you could sell this fossil
without knowing what kind of a gem you're going to cut out of it as a fossil but maybe not for nearly
as much money as this beautiful cut gemstone so that's the thing you need to weigh up fossils can
be worth a lot of money especially if they're a rare type like a shark's tooth or an animal
tooth or a bone from a really rare animal or open a crocodile skull or something like
that they are worth a lot of money so yes if they were really a rare type of bone or fossil
I would not cut it even if it had beautiful color in it I wouldn't cut it now there's some people
that will cut a peppy shell or a bone and then or they'll keep it and then they'll polish where the
color is now this does nothing for the fossil so if you polish off the features of that fossil just
to see that color then you're devaluing the fossil you're not doing it any favors some people get
those Pippi shells it's a perfect Pipi and they polish all of the surfaces so that it looks like
a Pipi shape but it's just showing all the color but all the features and textures of this fossil
are now disappeared so realistically you can't call it a fossil anymore because somebody could
get a chunk of opal and carve a Pipi shell out of it and say this is a Pippi shell which it isn't
and it never was but you made it into the shape of a Pippi shell now if that makes sense so if
you polish the features off a fossil you devalue the fossils value you might increase the opal
gemstones value that you'll decrease the fossil value today I've got one little tiny piece it's
called a skin shell it comes from Cooper Petey and it's one of the first pieces I will be have
cut in a video from Cooper Petey and skin shell is known to have very very bright color this piece
has some nice features it is quite thin and it's curved because it's only the shell of a of a clam
mollusk or a Pippi or whatever it is and inside it inside the skin there is some really nice color
so I'm going to forego the fossil of this piece to go for the cut stone to see how good a color
comes out now before you say don't cut it because it's a nice fossil there's a lot of skin shell
fossil around and it's not that rare so the value of skin shell fossil as opposed to maybe what the
color could create is in my mind far greater so let's get on the wheel and see how this one goes
alrighty here's our skin shell you can see there's a very pretty color in there and you can see the
features of the shell lines the striations from the outer part of the shell and it concaves like
a shell should and there's also a few little features on the inside now if you look at the
edges where it's broken you can see some really nice color inside there so what I'm thinking is
that this skin shell is covering up some of the best color so I'm just going to take some
of that skin off it's getting quite thin down this end so I could bring that in a little bit
I would probably cut a stone around about there so let's see how good it looks and take its skin off
[Music]
so as you can see the colors starting to look quite nice there's a really nice
beautiful flagstone pattern with a bit of Floral in there as well and it seems to be that it's been
worthwhile cutting this piece from a fossil into a gemstone because that color is really quite nice
[Music]
I'm now trimming off the thinner side so it really doesn't need to be there
because it's too thin and can break so I'm just cleaning it up to a decent shape
I can still put a bit of a dome on it so I'll take it around the edges
like I'm doing and just roll it over slightly
now that I've shaped it and yes it's not an oval into a decent sort of
shape I will go through the process of polishing her up to give it a nice price
[Music]
opal cutting secrets are so well kept within the Opel cutting Community but there's a few
techniques that are really special that help you cut your opal properly
and that is if you're not holding your tongue right you're not doing it right [Music]
all right well now we've cut the stone um it's no no longer considered a fossil at all because I've
taken every bit of fossil feature off the piece so now it's worth what the stone is worth now
that that's something that you need to evaluate or even ask somebody else if you have a fossil
to find out whether it's actually worthwhile ruining a beautiful fossil which is probably
not the greatest idea in in a real world but when a stone is worth a lot more and when it
comes down to it in the world things of monetary value you will take the higher the higher price
that's just the way life is but uh this is a 3.32 carat Baroque shaped um not fossil anymore but a
white opal from Cooper Petey and it's worth around about the twelve hundred dollars now
it cost me 500 knowing it was a fossa with pretty color so I have made a profit by polishing it up
and turning it from a fossil into a nice gem stain so I hope that gives you a little bit
of a clearer picture and I hope you enjoyed thanks for watching and I'll see you next time [Applause]
my shot