Applying to join this forum, you HAVE to activate your membership in YOUR email in the notice you recieve after completing application process. No activation on your part, no membership.

Lapidaryforum.net

Please login or register.

Login with username, password and session length
Advanced search  

News:

Welcome new members & old from the Lapidary/Gemstone Community Forum. Please join up. You will be approved after spam check & you must manually activate your acct with the link in your email

Congratulations to Bobby1 and his Brazilian Agate Cab!

 www.lapidaryforum.net

Another cabochon contest coming soon!

Pages: [1]   Go Down

Author Topic: Opal reborn  (Read 1877 times)

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

irockhound

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 1467
    • RockhoundingUSA
Opal reborn
« on: March 13, 2019, 03:41:09 PM »

I posted quite a while back about an opal that I was wearing while I was rock collecting and I happened to put sunscreen on which got over the opal taking all of the color out of the opal and turned it cloudy. Well I tried using acetone as a last resort but no luck.  I left it in a drawer for about a year or more figuring it was dead.  My first carved opal. I was looking for a piece of silver the other day and opened the drawer and it had come back to life! YAY
Pics aren't great,  taken with cell phone on the table of our rv. Opal is length wise is about a penny. None of the pictures do the colors justice
Logged

vitzitziltecpatl

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 1176
Re: Opal reborn
« Reply #1 on: March 13, 2019, 06:07:31 PM »

Happy days are here again - especially if it's your first carved opal.

I'm guessing it's Ethiopian. Did it come all the way back to the same color and clarity as before? It's a really nice stone.

Maybe someday I'll try carving one. So far I've just used a handpiece to remove clay mud. Do that to see how I might cut a conventional cab after revealing how much solid opal there is to work with.

irockhound

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 1467
    • RockhoundingUSA
Re: Opal reborn
« Reply #2 on: March 13, 2019, 07:45:52 PM »

You can see there is still a slight opaque at the very bottom. It is "almost" as clear as it was originally and the color for the most part is back and id say 95%.
Logged

Jhon P

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 1755
Re: Opal reborn
« Reply #3 on: March 13, 2019, 08:16:03 PM »

👍 I remember when you posted about killing your opal. 
Logged

peruano

  • Retired Zoologist
  • Sr. Member
  • ****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 410
Re: Opal reborn
« Reply #4 on: March 14, 2019, 04:11:23 AM »

Seldom do stones improve when you age them, but opals have their own agenda. The interaction between sunscreen and the opal is of interest in itself. It might have been filtering the light, but I'm not so sure sunscreen works that way.
Logged
Combining a love of bikes (pedal and otherwise) with hiking, hounding, lapidary, and the great outdoors

vitzitziltecpatl

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 1176
Re: Opal reborn
« Reply #5 on: March 14, 2019, 05:57:25 AM »

Sometimes the hydrophane Welo opals don't dry back to their original appearance even if only soaked in water.

Some I cut came back slightly less translucent after drying. Robin cut one that stayed downright milky looking.

Still is a cool pendant. I'm glad it came back for you.

hummingbirdstones

  • Opalholic and General Rock Nut
  • Administrator
  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 3055
    • Hummingbird Stones Lapidary Services
Re: Opal reborn
« Reply #6 on: March 14, 2019, 06:48:59 AM »

Glad to see your opal came back to life!   :WEEEE:
Logged
Robin

ileney

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 639
Re: Opal reborn
« Reply #7 on: March 14, 2019, 08:32:23 AM »

I bet the acetone did dissolve the oil and then the stone still had to completely dry out to get the color back. If something like this ever happens to me, I will try acetone if waiting for it to dry out alone doesn’t do the job.
Logged

irockhound

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 1467
    • RockhoundingUSA
Re: Opal reborn
« Reply #8 on: March 15, 2019, 09:12:43 AM »

The idea of acetone scared me but at that point i literally had nothing to lose
Logged
Pages: [1]   Go Up
 

Page created in 0.117 seconds with 44 queries.