Mexican Fire Opal Carving With Dremel, Foredom, Flex Shaft, Rotary Tool

[@malysyforethought1195]

Lovely glow and that swirl in the back gives it depth and interest.

[@RoysRocks]

Does glow for sure. Looks great in high light but not so much in low light conditions.

[@nicolemurray-jeffery7433]

Interesting the two very different textures in the one piece. Thanks for sharing 😊

[@RoysRocks]

Sometimes in boulder opal you can get 3-4 different materials which is even more interesting.

[@bbisyy4u]

That’s very unique. It looks very 3 dimensional. Almost as if there are hills and canyons. I love it.

[@RoysRocks]

The wonders of opal. Unique is the key for me with any of these stones.

[@silverkasia76]

Like how 'that guy' lets the opal decide how its going to look best!

[@RoysRocks]

Nature does a good job putting these things together. No need to change it too much.

[@nancycurtis7315]

Interesting looking stone. Turned out well, I think.😊

[@RoysRocks]

I think it was okay and I reckon the hardness of it should mean it is stable and stable so I'll try it out and see how it goes.

[@ccccarriemchardy9216]

The Mexican opal (I have found) is very stable once faced and polished out of water. Ive had mine for over 5 years now and its lovely.

[@RoysRocks]

Nice one. I do have a few dry pieces that dont show any signs of cracks so I'm sure it wont be an issue.

[@charleslatre1436]

Love the eye shape man thank you for doing a piece

[@RoysRocks]

It was fun. Need to dive into stuff super different every now and then.

[@jeffreymcintyre6037]

Never seen this cut before. This will be interesting. Thanks for the education.

[@RoysRocks]

It's nice stuff but tough as nails. I need to research more on the host rock. It's almost like carving soapstone.

[@gazzog6252]

Far out I have never seen fire opal with color before looks awsome

[@RoysRocks]

That was my first precious piece. It's in the foggy crust later which has a few inclusions but the crystal beneath has no play so it is a funny stone.

[@gazzog6252]

@@RoysRocks if you get some more can you please do a vid man

[@karenjones7111]

Beautiful. ✌️❤️

[@RoysRocks]

Wish there was a flash of something other than orange but... went well.

[@Famo59]

Nice fire 🔥 opal.. Cheers

[@RoysRocks]

It's cool stuff. I might need to send Mike some money to shop for me at the US gem shows for more.

[@karenjones7111]

Can't wait to see your silversmithing vids.

[@RoysRocks]

Its a bit of a tough thing to record. I'll work it out though.

[@ohiovalleymetals9605]

Nice lil stone! Love the content brotha, watching your videos made me want to start craving/polishing. Thanks for the new obsession! 👊🏻

[@RoysRocks]

Stay safe and have fun with it. Humans have been messing with rocks before fire so it's a natural obsession... Or so I convince myself.

[@ohiovalleymetals9605]

@@RoysRocks right! 😆 That was always my secret love growing up. But the day my boys showed interest, that's all it took to bring it back. Appreciate ya brotha

[@jeffholmes1362]

Interesting, but I think I like the matrix side better that the face. But then I’m a fan of boulder and andamooka. Interesting to see other forms of opal. Thanks for sharing, and yes I’d facet that too.

[@RoysRocks]

I do like the little opal bubbles scattered through the host rock. I've not seen it in any of my other pieces.

[@dcallan812]

Nice gem, I dont mind fire opal even without the fire. I would love to get into faceting too, but its so much time and money involved to get decent results.

[@RoysRocks]

For me I could scrape together the coin but I have no space left or time! This whole channel runs from a 1m x 1m space plus a bit of outside work.

[@elishadoyle8191]

You always do an awesome job with your work. Thanks for sharing your videos 🎉🎉🎉. Could you please one day when you have the time, do a video on how to use your chips? I know a lot of people would have chips around and usually they are thrown out or put aside never to be touched again 😢. There's got to be something fun we could make with the chips so there's no wastage 😅

[@RoysRocks]

I have a good chip project in my future videos idea list. I should get it done soon.

[@elishadoyle8191]

@@RoysRocks Awesome. I can't wait to see 😁. Thanks very much

[@jay8353]

Smoothin....? I dont know if thats a word but its a good 1 to add to our opal vocabulary lol. I hear ya on not having enough time due to work. PS: my alox turned up so thanks for that

[@RoysRocks]

Haha smoothin: to get something smooth. It's in my dictionary for sure. That AlOx would be perfect for this stone. I reckon I'll do a follow up video using CeOx then AlOx on this one to show why.

[@chasecarlson4900]

Definitely all in for the precious fire opals; I’m only a fan of Australian boulder look so other opal I’ll attempt to get as clean as possible. I actually only keep them dry; I actually find them moreso similar to Australian opals stability than Ethiopian opal. Somewhere in between but 100% closer to the Australian side of opal stability

[@RoysRocks]

I have a few dried pieces of the Mexican fire opal but since this one was sent in water I have some reservations. Sooner or later I will try and dry it.

[@dustyblueberry3313]

I'm not normally a fan of the colour orange but, this has such a beautiful warm glow. And the piece with precious opal is pretty special looking,. Do you know how well this wears as a faceted stone?

[@RoysRocks]

It is surprisingly hard but still opal so soft in the grand scheme of things so probably not well.

[@dustyblueberry3313]

@@RoysRocks Thank you for that. I didn't think it would wear well but, I was still curious, thanks again!

[@ResortDog]

Nothing glows like a good Mexican Fire Opal. The rind is not the core thing is typical in volcanic opals. Might be the varying electric field strength on the ions and chemical mix. The matrix holds it all together, but beware the craze.

[@RoysRocks]

The craze is the current fear but I'll slow dry it and hope for the best.

[@ResortDog]

I found time does not help that much. Using low density PP bags water vapor will waft thru is about as far as i go trying to be nice. I dry the E in the oven (LOW) to speed up that drying and none crazed. Opal is good or bad as a rule and the out of water into the desert air is a pretty good test for us in Nevada. Somewhere i had a video of a seller walking thru his garden with a hose watering the piles of opals not the plants saying "Everybody knows you can not dry opal in the desert" He wasnt at Mintabe either. Mind you a big wet specimen is better than the odds of it drying. Thats why the E is also sold in water huge now. (Got into our market) Most would crack and craze to that 1 inch or so stable size when dried and the unhealthy will craze by then. Note it does work from the outside in from some districts so if you slab it and cube it, the corners can pull in instead of the flaking or crazy cracks in slabs ruining the best color.

[@jakewelford]

Where do you source rough opal?

[@RoysRocks]

Some direct from miners, some good resellers and rarely online from unknown sellers these days. I kinda have a person for each different field that I can get in touch with now unlike in the early days. Avoid all scammers that way and deal with the same great people over and over again.

[@Kerrsartisticgifts]

Another really enjoyable video, thank you very much. I have been seeing Australian fire opal and monarch opal advertised on eBay and opal auctions. Are they a real thing, Roy? I'm asking that because I was sucked into buying a 40carat Belo opal doublet because I thought it was a misspelling of Wello opal. I was just suspicious of it being a doublet.

[@RoysRocks]

Monarch opal is synthetic but Australian fire opal does exist. Looks very similar to Mexican and there was a pretty embarrassing episode of outback opal hunters where some miners were trying to sell there Aussie fire opal for insane prices at an overseas gem show and got shut down.