What a lovely piece... 👍 Why do you use Sandpaper and not Nova-Wheels ? Is it 'cause of the different hardness of the sections...sand etc.? And is it bettter to sand it in dry condition?
Thanks for your comment and question . When cutting opal, sandpaper is always my choice. I am very happy with the quality of the Starke paper I use. This was a difficult piece, prone to undercutting due different harnesses throughout the stone. I only sand dry.
Thank you for your question. This depends on the type of boulder you are processing. If the surface/colour is full faced without any iron stone, I would recommend a good quality cerium. If the surface is mixed with ironstone and relatively flat, I would suggest tin oxide. If the surface is not flat you may need to use a series of points. Either already charged with diamond or felt points you will need to charge with diamond compound. Keep in mind without adequate sanding and pre polishing a satisfactory end result will be near impossible.
If there is any ironstone in the face of the stone, espescially any softer iron/sandstone amongst the matrix, oxides will get caught in the pores and give an unnatractive spotted look to the stone, in that case you need to scrub it very well with detergent and tooth brush then put it in an ultrasonic cleaner to remove the oxides, i prefer to use 50,000 diamond paste on a well used felt wheel, a well used felt wheel will also naturally darken the lighter coloured stone and put a reasonable polish on the softer material that is impossible to get a polish on any other way.
Thanks for your question. Unfortunately, if I was to do this the majority of the piece will not produce many clean faced stones, and I don't think they will not be of much size. From the side you can see the colour is tapering to nothing.
LOVE pieces like this!
Thank you for your feedback, its a appreciated.
Very beautiful pattern. 😍 Impressive.
Thank you! 😊
Lovely stone indeed. 👌
Yes, this one has a lot of character.
What a lovely piece... 👍 Why do you use Sandpaper and not Nova-Wheels ? Is it 'cause of the different hardness of the sections...sand etc.? And is it bettter to sand it in dry condition?
Thanks for your comment and question . When cutting opal, sandpaper is always my choice. I am very happy with the quality of the Starke paper I use. This was a difficult piece, prone to undercutting due different harnesses throughout the stone. I only sand dry.
el mio tiene varias zonas de color azul turquesa y la zona mas oscura de ilumina en tonos rojos
Is it soft material?
Thanks for watching. The sections with light colour are soft. The darker lines are harder.
what is a good polish for boulder opal
Thank you for your question. This depends on the type of boulder you are processing. If the surface/colour is full faced without any iron stone, I would recommend a good quality cerium. If the surface is mixed with ironstone and relatively flat, I would suggest tin oxide. If the surface is not flat you may need to use a series of points. Either already charged with diamond or felt points you will need to charge with diamond compound. Keep in mind without adequate sanding and pre polishing a satisfactory end result will be near impossible.
If there is any ironstone in the face of the stone, espescially any softer iron/sandstone amongst the matrix, oxides will get caught in the pores and give an unnatractive spotted look to the stone, in that case you need to scrub it very well with detergent and tooth brush then put it in an ultrasonic cleaner to remove the oxides, i prefer to use 50,000 diamond paste on a well used felt wheel, a well used felt wheel will also naturally darken the lighter coloured stone and put a reasonable polish on the softer material that is impossible to get a polish on any other way.
I have a stone similar to this but not an opal
Thank you for your sharing.
Why not open the color bars? It seems the most of the color is still inside, perpendicularly.
Thanks for your question. Unfortunately, if I was to do this the majority of the piece will not produce many clean faced stones, and I don't think they will not be of much size. From the side you can see the colour is tapering to nothing.