Helping A Beginner Finish Their First Gem Opal. Cabbing With A Dremel.

[@chadatchison145]

That's a lovely little stone thanks for the tips Roy.

[@RoysRocks]

No worries hope it helps speed up the process for some. Its a nice baby stone glad it didnt turn into dust.

[@redeyestones3738]

Good information for beginners for sure. Wish I had the sculpt wax demonstration two years ago. 😆

[@RoysRocks]

Wish I had some wax. Would have been much better than melting blutack! Shed is getting too hot for that stuff to survive.

[@HansFormerlyTraffer]

Another excellent tutorial...Thanks Roy.

[@RoysRocks]

I'm happy I was tasked with an easy job for once! 🤣

[@dinoklein]

Good to see how you solved the problem. I have the same problem sometimes. I realize that I need to tackle the problem differently. I also need more patience. ;)

[@RoysRocks]

Yeah its a very common sticking point but once you get the strategy right you'll be set and never have the problem again.

[@nancycurtis7315]

Thanks again Roy. Will save me much angst, when I get to that stage. Was a nice little opal, that had a great start and the owner should be proud of it. You refined it and showed us how to. Turned out beautiful. 🙂

[@RoysRocks]

Hopefully it saves for from making adjustments just to make new flat spots. Much easier if you always think about a larger area sweep.

[@TheObSeRvErTheObSeRv]

Great work, and informative.

[@RoysRocks]

No worries. Hope it helps.

[@Historynerd42]

Great job. The stone came out so good looks like you did it with a cabbing machine.

[@RoysRocks]

Just takes longer and is a little more difficult with a dremel but certainly can be done 💪

[@EvelynPic]

Great video! Really pretty little opal. It will make a beautiful ring.

[@RoysRocks]

Yeah not a bad find for a beginner and they were soo close to getting there.

[@MrSkrilla316]

I've been working on a lot of smaller stones lately. It can be hard to find small dowels. Wooden skewers are cheap, work perfectly, and you get a lot of material for a couple bucks. Haven't had any issues with jeweler's wax as it seems to last if you don't burn it up. Glue can stick to fingers, but the wax can be pretty hot until you get used to rolling dop sticks.

[@RoysRocks]

Yeah I dont bother with dowel much these days. Chopsticks like in this video is the go to. Can shave them down for small stones or glue them together for big ones. Wax is good but the smaller the stone gets the harder it is to stop it from going past the edge. Smaller stones will also heat faster so have to be a bit careful there.

[@ThatOpalGuy]

toothpicks will work fine. I use them often on the tiniest stones.

[@judygofton1896]

Thank you . Good information as I am a beginner 😁

[@RoysRocks]

Hopefully it speeds up the learning process. Once you get it right you'll be able to do it in your sleep! 👌

[@ThatOpalGuy]

practice. lots of practice. Justin, at BOD, says his dad didnt let him work on any precious opal for three years.

[@jeffholmes1362]

Nice job Roy, can’t believe the difference with such a small amount of carat reduction. I turned many a 5 carat stone into 2 carat stones in the early days, I still look at them and think, perhaps I should go back and re shape them now. 😊

[@RoysRocks]

Yeah I can understand someone panicking as the stone shrinks bit by bit as they are trying to fix it. Smart that they put it down and sent it over.

[@ThatOpalGuy]

If you can see the color without needing to remove the potch, sand, etc, then you should be worried about losing that much. but as for that loss, if i get a stone half the original weight i am happy. most times it is one third or one fourth the original carat weight. I look at my early stones and think "should I work on them further"? my answer: unless I may sell them, no. I like to have a record of my progression as an opal cutter.

[@ElinHaugan]

Nice video and you rock that dremel, looks just as perfect as if it was done with a cabber 😊👌 Only thing I can put my finger on is that a lot of people also struggles to see exactly where the problem is. I think that's the main reason their stones gets smaller and smaller, a template is a grate tool to help reading stones and to find the shape that makes the lowest loss 🙂

[@ThatOpalGuy]

I have used a template many times, particularly on stones that may be worth good money. even so that is not a guarantee. practice is the only way to get good at the shapes you want.

[@RoysRocks]

Yeah a template was used a few times on this stone but I think it were the small flat spots that they kept getting that was driving them insane. They were close and should be okay now if they try to follow this as a guide for the next one.

[@ThatOpalGuy]

@@RoysRocks it really does help to see someone else do it and provide good close ups and explanations of their process.

[@RoysRocks]

@@ThatOpalGuy Yeah its a good way to learn. Seems to work for just about any learning style.

[@ThatOpalGuy]

My first suggestion to that lucky parcel owner is: get base potch or low value stones practice practice practice. Your advice on dopping the stone is spot on though. I dont know of any opal carvers on youtube that dont dop (one exception is the creator: the blood that moves the body, she carves opals one handed, and I am incredibly impressed and jealous...). Even Justin puts his gems on dop sticks to finish the fine shaping. What a fine piece of crystal. I havent gotten something quite that nice yet, but I do have a nice long piece that has a great directional flash and dat chaff! You know the one.

[@RoysRocks]

Yeah they have done a few potch pieces and have fairly good results. I think if they dop and go around the stone rather than up and down on those edges they will get there on the next one. The potch they worked with has been larger so once they got under 1ct I think it threw them off.

[@tr4pwolf326]

Amazing work Roy 👏🏽 love your attention to detail great tutorial

[@RoysRocks]

Thanks and I hope you found something to help.

[@LocallyLostHandmade]

Thanks for the Videos Roy I Cabbed my first Opal with a set of Nova tips the other day, just doing the slow dry now in the Sandwich bag. I have it sold going to electroform it as a Ring. I’ll post a Vid here soon! Thanks for the inspiration

[@RoysRocks]

Oh cool. Slow drying so it is an Ethiopian opal? Hope it dries well.

[@lisamiller2227]

Definitely good info for us, thanks mate 💜

[@RoysRocks]

No worries 👌

[@zoinkaboose]

AWESOME vid!

[@RoysRocks]

Thanks 😁

[@Jaireeopal]

Fantastic tips thank you

[@RoysRocks]

No worries I hope it helps

[@Jaireeopal]

@RoysRocks most definitly thanks Roy 😊

[@tr4pwolf326]

Thanks this is where im going weong haha mind u imcusing wet and dry and doing it old school haha

[@RoysRocks]

Oh I was there once. I used to push for so long and hard by hand that I would have cramps for days afterwards.

[@elishadoyle8191]

Giday Roy I'm just wondering how you measure your stones to cab it properly?

[@RoysRocks]

Mitutoyo vernier calipers

[@elishadoyle8191]

@@RoysRocks I'm having a little trouble on how to measure it up ect. Ive done cabs but I've noticed sometimes one side may be just a bit off and I hate it because I'm a perfectionist lol

[@anthonymcclain6475]

I MUST get a set of those novas you have!

[@RoysRocks]

They are helpful little tools. Got this one finished in no time at all.

[@alko2124]

Did you use here small or large Novas?

[@RoysRocks]

Old video so rough quality but I can still tell they are the large set. The giveaway is the pink hue of the 3000 grit. I'll only use small points if there are deep and sharp dips that the large cant reach.

[@PeZi3000]

Which RPM SPEED do you use for the Nova tips?

[@RoysRocks]

Around 8,000-10,000 rpm. They can handle faster but I like that speed range.