Lapidaryforum.net
General Category => Buy/Sell/Trade => Topic started by: John Robinson on September 15, 2017, 12:43:21 PM
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I pulled down a post about having 23 one ct opals to swap or sell because I started looking around and I have a lot of small stones, perhaps 100 cts worth. They all have color, that is why I saved them. However, I do not know if my skill set will ever include being able to work with small stones so I want to swap these for a single piece of good rough or sell them to save up for a piece of good rough.
If anyone is interested PM me and I will start taking pictures although I do not take very good pictures...
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use a diamond finger nail file and water to shape those small stones
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Thanks, most them are big enough to use a dop stick to do a lot of the shaping. I would prefer to trade them, but I could always try and make a floating opal pendant. I was also thinking about just throwing them in a tumbler with some potch and use what survived for something (?)
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if you dop them, use super glue on a tiny dop. then just toss them into acetone to release the opal off the dop stick.
Acetone will eat the glue.
I usually cut them off the stick and file away the glue & wood with a flat lap
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Thanks! That is great news because I have yet to figure out how to use doping wax - matter of fact, I am not even sure thw wax I am trying use as doping wax actually is doping wax ... C
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Yeah, don't sell the 1 ct opals short. The one in my avatar (granted it is a black) was a 1 ct stone.
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AND, you cnnot use wax to adhere an opal to a stone.
If you heat an opal you will ruin it.
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Not really, Randy. I dop opals all the time with wax. Never wrecked one of them doing it. What cracks opals is temperature shock. If you heat it up slowly and let it cool slowly, it won't hurt it. Of course, if there already an unknown crack in the interior of the stone that you don't see, it may break, but it will anyway eventually.
I do use glue on small stones, just because it's easier. :icon_sunny:
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Hey, I figured out what to with these little opals that is commesurate with my level of skill right now. I found some bags with little glass cabs in them and I can use them to make tiny doublets. All I have to is flatten and polish one side then affix them to the glass cabs, then turn them over to trim to fit the fitting. I think I can make some really nice necklaces, by stringing these little ones together on either side of a festoon or pendant.
I wish there was a cab holder for each size of glass cabs, that sure would help...