One Of My Best Cuts Ever - I Knew This Would Be Awesome! - Opal Cutting

Name: One Of My Best Cuts Ever - I Knew This Would Be Awesome! - Opal Cutting
Uploaded: 2026-04-10T20:27:00.908Z
Duration: 8 min 29 s
Channel: Gemstone Crafting
Description: At first glance, this nobby didn’t look like much — a small, rounded piece with a promise buried deep inside. A lesson in patience, instinct, and knowing when to trust what lies beneath the surface. What looked like a humble 12-carat piece of opal rough, bought for just $400, turned out to hold a world of color and a healthy dose of surprise. Thanks for watching :)

Gemstone Crafting

1 Video View·Apr 10, 2026

At first glance, this nobby didn’t look like much — a small, rounded piece with a promise buried deep inside. A lesson in patience, instinct, and knowing when to trust what lies beneath the surface. What looked like a humble 12-carat piece of opal rough, bought for just $400, turned out to hold a world of color and a healthy dose of surprise.

Thanks for watching :)

I paid $400 for this little rock, but I bet you I can make a really good profit. And here's the reason why. This little knobby opal is 12 carats. And the thing that's special about it is it has a bubble of color. So all of the color bar inside there is all rounded like it was when it was formed. And I reckon that the color inside is gonna face an absolute beautiful crystal. So come over here and I'll show you. All right, so this beautiful little knobby has the nicest color bar in a kernel inside. And you can see this potch that goes around like that. So my imagination that is also going around the whole stone like an already made dome, pretty much, on the stone. And if my calculations are correct, the best color should be sitting in that little bubble. So let's get on the wheel and see if we can't coerce an absolutely gorgeous little crystal gem out of this. Nice color there is a little color bar above it that's a bit deceiving, but that's not the color we want. So if I was to start taking it down, you'll hit that first bit of color and say, hmm, it doesn't look that good. But if I'm correct, look at that, it looks terrible. If I'm correct, I should be able to push that down on that stone and eventually come through to a really, really nice color underneath. And that is the plan, very pretty color. I would love it if it turns out the way I'm hoping. See little glimpses of colors, it's showing through. Not quite, not quite there yet. Oh, there's a little glimpse. There it is starting just there. You see that? Oh, and there too. When that cloud starts coming off, I can see that crystal is just gonna start coming through so beautifully. Look at that color beneath. For real. Yes! Check that out. Oh, look at that bright crystal. That's magnificent. Have a gaze at that. Meniscus in opal is something that you don't really see that often. And potch lines can be really curved. And you don't realize it until you started grinding into the piece that there could be a bubble of color showing up inside that is brighter than any other area of the stone. It's pretty magnificent when it happens. And this piece is no exception. And I can see that I'm gonna make a profit. Magnificent color. And I tell you what, if this actually faces from the other side really well too, should be a double-sided gem. There we go. Dad was due for a good win. And I think he figured it was time to pull out this gem because he knew it was gonna cut a cracker. And anyone that knows Justin knows how much he loves crystal opal. And you've seen his collection. A lot of the gems are top quality crystal opal. And I can tell you right now, it's gonna take a lot of convincing to get him to not put this in his collection. Obviously, there's a lot of knowledge going into whether or not a gem will cut. And in this case, dad knew that this was an easy win. And it goes to show that it's definitely possible to cut top quality gems from cheap stones. As you might be able to see something in the cut that no one else can see. But as you guessed it, this only comes from experience. And the only way to get better is to see more opal. So let's all take a moment and enjoy this win together. Because no matter who you are or where you're from, we all love seeing good opal. No, it's going on my glasses. Stop it. Stop! A magnificent gem. Wow, that's just gorgeous. That's collection worthy, that one. And yep, if you didn't just pick up on that, he wants to put it in his collection. What a surprise. Also keep an eye out in future videos for our opal score, where we rate each cut with three categories out of five stars. So that cut has turned out really beautiful. I'm so happy with the double-sided crystal. And the side that I thought would be nicer is better. And I was expecting around about two carats for the stone. So let's give it away. And it is one carat more, three carats. That is pretty impressive. So three carats, so three grand a carat. That's nine grand. Are you kidding? From 400 bucks to nine grand. That's awesome. So it just goes to show that a little bit of knowledge can get you a long way, especially on little pieces like this. If you didn't know that there was a bubble inside, you wouldn't know that there was gonna be a great stone. And there was. So it is possible. So stoked. Thanks for watching. So happy.