How to Grade Rough Opal

How to Grade Rough Opal ready for processing

To grade rough opal, you might just make three piles of stones. One pile represents the stones with the greatest potential with the most obvious color and of course, this is the main reason for checking the opal because if the stones are just black or white potch or ironstone, they are of little value.

The other piles might represent ‘B’ grade and ‘C’ grade and so on. Maybe you have five or six opal rough grades. At first, it might look like there isn’t any color at all and this is where a careful inspection is necessary because the opal is often hidden inside the stones.

How to Grade Rough Opal – kampesten

Let’s begin at the top of Australia with boulder opal ru, which is found mainly in the Winton, Quilpie, Yowah, Koroit regions from north-west Queensland to south-west Queensland in the eastern States. This type of opal rough can come in large boulder iron-stones, or very small ‘nuts’ of ironstone with (hopefully) kernels of opal color. Have sagt, at, you can crack open thousands of these kernels before finding any sign of opal so it’s a big risk trying to find color at times.

Indications of opal rough color

Even though it’s hard to find, there are certain indications that you look for. In the case of large boulder opal concretions, the miner, usually on an excavator, learns how to recognize the ‘level’ that he is working on. The ironstone boulders with opal potential are not difficult to identify once you have seen a few.

But the next problem is finding the color in the large rocks. The miner will chip away, usually at the bottom of the rock to look for color and if there are any signs of opal veins in the rock, he will break it again a long way from the color and just put the piece with the opal color aside for further inspection.

Most of us don’t drive bulldozers to find opal rough

So by the time we get to inspect the opal ru, it is in much smaller pieces. The miner has broken it down to the point that it can be handled and transported, and this in itself can be a challenge.

Often large 44-gallon drums are used on the back of heavy trailers to bring the material from 1500 km away to the coast where it can be broken down more with the aid of large diamond saws. Selvfølgelig, many of the miners have this equipment at the mine site too, so they can avoid a long journey, carting a lot of valueless material.

So you have the rough opal boulder in front of you

What are you looking for that gives an indication whether or not it’s worth what the miner is asking? Godt, you have to look for fine lines of color.

You carefully check to see if these lines or veins continue. Sometimes they can be seen on the other side of the rock and even if there is only colorless potch on the back end of the stone, det er en indikation af, at opalfarven bevæger sig inde i klippen, og det kan være, at der er mindst en del af denne åre med ædle opal i den.

Så du vil forsøge at skære stykket ud, hvor denne vene højst sandsynligt rejser, så du kan slibe væk på det og afsløre farven. Så mens du inspicerer den ru opal-klump, du skal kigge efter disse tegn, og hvis der er nok af dem, pakken kunne være værd at købe.

At købe grov opal er ikke for nybegyndere

Det er den nemmeste måde at tabe en bunke penge, som de fleste af os gennem smertefulde erfaringer har lært. Derfor, det bedste råd at give til folk, der køber på internettet, er at kigge efter pakker, hvor farven allerede er blevet afsløret af kutteren i Australien.

Du ser, mange af os kuttere ønsker ikke at gå den ulejlighed at færdiggøre alle de opalsten, vi finder. Vi er en doven masse. Nogle gange ville vi foretrække at tjene et par dollars mellem minearbejderen og hobbymanden eller den professionelle kutter

og lad en anden gøre resten af ​​fortjenesten mellem opal ru og færdige sten og i forlængelse heraf, smykker. Så tag et kig på de pakker hos opalmine, der har tydelig farve.

Disse pakker kaldes 'rubs'’ betyder, at affaldet er blevet gnidet af den ru opal, eksponerer farven.

På denne måde risikerer du ikke at miste dine penge, og du kan stadig få udfordringen og fornøjelsen af ​​at se opal-ruen forvandlet til en fantastisk perle.

Køber ru opal fra Lighting Ridge

Lignende råd kan tilbydes ved køb af denne opal rough, bortset fra at du hos Lightning Ridge ikke har problemet med at skulle bryde stenen ned fra så store klumper. Al opal ru fundet her er hos små nobbies, eller sømstykker, så du ikke skal slå den med en forhammer.

Du kan enten tage et stykke af enden af ​​det med et par snips, eller skær det på diamanthjulet for at tjekke det indvendigt. Men de samme råd kan gives med hensyn til at jagte farver. Ru opal fra Lightning Ridge kommer normalt ikke i årer, der hvirvler og bøjer sig gennem stenen.

Hele stykket kan være en luns opal, eller du kan få ret lige 'bars'’ af farve, som lettere kan findes, hvis du sliber rundt om kanten af ​​opal-ru.

Buying Lightning Ridge opal rough as Rubs

The same advice in regard to this applies to Ridge opal rough as it does to boulder opal rough. Try to buy parcels that have the color exposed so that there is not so much risk.

Buying opal rough from Coober Pedy, Andamooka, White Cliffs or Mintabie

Very similar advice to the Lightning Ridge information except that opal rough from these areas is nearly always seam opal and usually comes in lumps of opal which of course can be full of color, have a little color, or have very little or no color as in the case of potch.

Coober Pedy opal rough is easier to check and grade because generally, you can see the color after it has been washed and sorted. Som regel, it’s not so necessary to buy it as opal rubs, but again, hvis du er på den anden side af verden, det giver stadig mening at købe det i sin opgraderede form, så du ikke betaler store fragtomkostninger for en masse affaldsmateriale.

For eksempler på forskellige gnidede opal ru pakker til salg, eller et groft opalråd, tag et kig i opalminbutikken.

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