3 Bar Lightning Ridge Ultra Beginner Grade Stone Carving. Losing 99% Of The Rough. Such Is Life.

[@anthonymcclain6475]

I'm always surprised by your dexterity with the smaller stones without a dopstick... bravo 👏

[@RoysRocks]

Haha years of practice and working small carvings. They do go flying every now and then but haven't lost one in a while. ✈️

[@kenoathiog1156]

Wowee… a bit of a roller coaster there Roy! Some great tips in there, which is the real value in this process. Thanks again !!!

[@RoysRocks]

No worries. At least I'm having a bit of fun with it. Hoping the little yellow one beats this one.

[@EvelynPic]

Fun to watch it evolve. Pretty little stone came out of it.

[@RoysRocks]

Yeah at least something was left by the end of it. A lot of work for little reward sometimes when it comes to low grade parcels but at least we can have fun with it.

[@firstlast-mp1dc]

Thanks Roy, It was fun to see how you choose to carve that stone. I have a few stones from when I first started that I never cut the bars on, and just polished the outside, so I appreciate your perspective on how you sliced them and exposed the bars. Im looking forward to seeing what I have now that I have more experience and knowledge in a large part from watching your videos. Thank you.

[@RoysRocks]

Have fun, slicing is only just behind polishing for me in terms of fun. It starts out pretty stressful but a good slice is very satisfying.

[@stanleykongmanmathis1065]

Nice stones...good job..

[@RoysRocks]

Thanks. I aint giving up on the $50 parcel yet. If it were my parcel I wouldn't care so much but being a subscribers parcel I'll try and milk anything I can out of it! 💪

[@nancycurtis3230]

Morning Roy. When I saw the black potch, I hoped that it would be a really nice stone. Still pretty, though it was shame about the sand. I'd be happy with them. The 50 dollar investment was well worthwhile. 🙂

[@RoysRocks]

Im sure if I can get the yellow flashy stone to clear up then the $50 will be worth it.

[@redeyestones3738]

fun little mystery stone

[@RoysRocks]

I will admit it was fun, just wish the final stones were a touch brighter and larger but I guess that is the same every cut.

[@redeyestones3738]

@@RoysRocks that's always my thoughts when carving stones. No matter how good they come out. 😆

[@RoysRocks]

@@redeyestones3738 Haha we have to always look on the bright side or we would all go insane.

[@jeffholmes1362]

Nice video Roy. I still think for a $50 parcel, there’s $50 of fun, but you could get your money back on this one, I started with plenty of parcels that were sand shot and made me feel like I couldn’t cut opal, but at least there a bars in this one. And an actual chance to learn. Thanks for sharing.

[@RoysRocks]

True, I remember the days of only working on stones that didn't have any colour at all! Then upgraded to sand shot nightmares then finally comfortable enough to work on colourful stones.

[@kennethnew3075]

Even with it not looking perfect on the stones it was still fun to watch. Sometimes when it does not go right is when you learn some great tips. Please, What type of blade were you using for the slicing ? I have had some issues slicing with the Dremel. I had one shatter not to long ago. That was a sad day. Thanks so much .

[@RoysRocks]

I use a boring electroplated blade with holes in it. I dont use sintered blades as they are brittle and need to be thicker to stay in tact. The ones I bought do tend to warp very fast if they are the larger diameter so I always try to use the smallest size I can get away with and go as gently as possible.

[@bentationfunkiloglio]

Not a bad little stone. Might be a stunner hiding inside the next opal you cut from this parcel. You never know. I am in the process of cutting a 100+ cts lightning ridge white opal I bought for $1. Looks like I'll get a 2 or 3 cts gorgeous semi-crystal gem with a ton of red. Very well could be the highest value opal yet for me. Will also get one or two (far) lesser quality gems (also predominantly red color)

[@RoysRocks]

Sounds like a killer $1 parcel!!! I've got my fingers crossed that the other high potential stone in this parcel works out better than this one.

[@ronaldschmidtsr152]

I can't get used to dealing with pieces that are so small! Ron sr

[@RoysRocks]

It is certainly tricky. Dopping with glue really helps though.

[@drfill9210]

Fyi I'm working on some better assessments in the value of Opal. In my experience, you tend to get 10% of the rough into a polished stone. Also the density of Opal suits at 2g/cm^3, and sand sits at 1.7... from this, you can estimate area, weigh the stone and get a good idea of the sand fraction. If the matrix is clay, it's about 1.4...

[@RoysRocks]

When I buy rough I mostly do a minimum 40% loss on carving to value the parcel. More if I want to cab it rather than carve. Of course this changes if its a skin to skin piece of rough but thats all part of the fun 😀

[@ManMountainMetals]

👍🐈

[@ManMountainMetals]

Got some kinda green paste and rubber widgets in my last Dremel kit, worked well smoothing the back of some pours.

[@RoysRocks]

I think mine came with something similar but haven't used many of the accessories since they are not so good with opal.

[@redeyestones3738]

Just out of curiosity I was wondering if you have ever used dopwax to fasten a stone to a large piece of wood that you can then submerge in the water so you can cut it with your cutoff blade without getting too messed up on the line or anything like if it's a weird piece to hold and you need to make a weird cut. And if you haven't maybe you could do that and that be something you can explore on your channel like oh we're going to try this today I bet there'd be plenty of people that would be into watching that and be like wondering what would happen.

[@RoysRocks]

I haven't used dopping wax for that but have used epoxy to hold submerged stones for drilling holes.

[@ebaystore4all]

What kind of cerium oxide are you using?

[@RoysRocks]

Nowadays I am getting my own custom CeOx manufactured. Basically a super cerium. Once I package it up it'll be up for sale.

[@ebaystore4all]

@@RoysRocks great! I'd love to try some out. Just got my first Dremel station set up all because of you!

[@RoysRocks]

@@ebaystore4all Nice hopefully many gems in your future! ✨

[@drfill9210]

Meh, finish off the larger stone. The two could go for over 100....

[@RoysRocks]

Yeah I probably will shine that one up off camera for KG. I'm mostly keen to record the yellow flashy one though.

[@CockatoobirdmanBill]

Sorry Roy but you know what they say ( You Can't Win Them All ) in Opal's 15% is high $50.00 to learn and practice is cheap. Be well and be safe.............

[@RoysRocks]

Too true. All we can do is throw our energy into the next stone and hope we get a gem. They are always just around the corner. 🤞