Welo Opal Master Taught Me The Ways (Part One Welo Opal Carving)

[@V27RV]

I always come back to this video for that colour

[@RoysRocks]

I'm working some better Ethiopian at the moment. Such bright colour.

[@coldopal5942]

I've got mineral heavy water where I live so I've taken the precaution to use only distilled water to store my shewa/mezezo crystal opal. It's strange that this is not losing as much color when being wet like this- maybe it is the oil still stuck inside the opal that is preventing this? It could also be that this is just shewa/mezezo crystal that was being sold as wello (thus why it was shipped in oil, since that opal would craze and crack worse than what is already seen here if shipped dry). Certainly a nice piece for sure and can't wait to see how this turns out!

[@RoysRocks]

Yeah not sure. I will check it each day and see if I can displace all the oil. Seems to be working so far but only a few days in. I don't think I'll get it all out unfortunately.

[@DarkenShroud]

If the crystal / welo already corrupted with oil past the point of no return. Then perhaps use a small bit mineral oil / vasoline on the stone / Novas. Seen fire agate mark do it on his channel with fire agate, and the oil / mineral spirits leave the stones moist for the Novas to work on. This way you don't have to apply water when you continue your work. Fairly certain oil / vasoline will be a proper substitute in your situation. Pretty sure the Nova's will be fairly easy to clean afterwards as well. Have a fair amount of Welo here in the rough. Not sure I like the idea of no water, so I'm gonna go that route myself on some of the lower end stuff I have to test. All my stuff has been kept dry upto this point.

[@DarkenShroud]

kzbin.info/www/bejne/jJ20aGRvhJyMerM here is how Fire Agate Mark uses his Nova's with mineral oil / vasoline. Though he's working with fire agate.

[@RoysRocks]

Thanks Darken I will check it out and I'll try out any and all ideas people come up with. Worst case scenario we can all learn something new if it does or doesn't work.

[@DarkenShroud]

@@RoysRocks Yeah not sure you're into fire agate too, Opal and fire agate are my two favorites. Fire Agate Mark is one of the best channels for fire agate / random learning Dremel tools / set ups / tricks / etc. You might think of getting into fire agate as well. More sturdy stuff than Opal, plus so much fun to work with. Seeing you are already doing almost the same steps as fire agate pretty much. Also enjoying the multi colors in minerals as I do. Fire Agate seems right up your alley.

[@mirafields1641]

Ya I've received oiled ethiopian opal and like you didn't know it was a warning sign. I had bad experiences with both times they were oiled. I think they do that to mask cracks and amplify color. One of my opals looked pretty good seemed to have very little cracks( Bear on mind it was oiled). It had a very strange perfumy odor also. When I started to work on it it just shatered in millions of pieces! I wasn't happy. And the funny thing is all the little pieces were practically colorless but when not broken it was green and blue. Worked with hundreds of dry and never had that happen to me. I'm never accepting oiled again and demanding refund!

[@RoysRocks]

Yep same here. Lessons learned. I wont be giving up on the Ethiopian opal journey thats for sure!

[@sarahdavis5816]

Hi Roy... Great video, very informative, and ewww I agree with the oil thing. I get almost all my opal (including Australian) on OA and the hydrophane always comes dry but the nonhydrophane comes wet. I thought all nonhyrophane was kept wet because of it's tendency to crack and/or craze when it is dry or drying. Do you know anything about this and/or have you gotten any tips on preventing this issue which is apparently a crapshoot. Thanks!

[@RoysRocks]

I've been told to keep it wet right up until you get the final polish done to give the stone the best chance to not crack apart.

[@xbabybluex]

When you put them in distilled water does the oil completely come out on its own? I was unlucky and all four Ethiopian opals i recieved came covered in oil, the seller told me to use soap and water but soap can destroy Ethiopians. I feel like the oil is actually ruining their color and body tone so it definitely needs to come out

[@RoysRocks]

Straight water wont do much to the oil as they will repel. I have thought about a few solvent treatments to replace the oil and rehydrate them with water but the effort probably wouldn't be worth it when buying more dry rough is so cheap.

[@kcchapman3630]

The color will disappear when soaked in water but will come back after compleatly dried. Drying can also cause them to crack majorly. Cracks spread like crazy.

[@RoysRocks]

They are a funny little stone the Ethiopian opal.

[@BenzGems]

Very interesting, thanks for sharing, good work, I liked this 👍🏼I think this opal It is a nice looking piece, love the green orange flashy looks can imagine it may be a bit of excitement finding opal like this while mining ⛏ the Ethiopian opals do have some Top Notch colours, apparently there is a large long line of opal stretching long and wide there in Ethiopian ground, at the bottom of a cliff of sorts, I think. have heard of stayish and definitely welo opal mine areas. The price on high quality Ethiopian opal material appears to be trying to compete with some of the Australian material price wise online. It’s great they have some interesting black opal too. Some does looks very nice. Once saw a group of American/other uk?-miner cutters , a team of guys on TV episode travel to the sources to try to buy some quality Ethiopian opal to make a profit. It was very interesting they encountered lots of choices for opal and ended up buying some rough and maybe one or a parcel cut too I think. The same team tried to mine some opal in Australia I think and ended up with a 70,000+ dollar black opal after cutting the rough piece. Maybe they still need a buyer. But that may have been high end retail, it was a very nice larger looking gem stone though.

[@RoysRocks]

Man I wish I could travel the world and check out various mines... One day.

[@BenzGems]

@@RoysRocks Same man one day soon hopefully it would be awesome 🤩

[@RoysRocks]

Retirement age is only... 45 years or something away for me so I'll start booking flights now I guess.

[@stefanpremdas2074]

Thanks for posting...

[@RoysRocks]

No worries. More Ethiopian to come in the future.

[@Shellchevy]

Shame about the cracks Roy abs the weird sticky oil, but I really can’t wait to see you finish this one off!

[@RoysRocks]

Well i'm slowly getting the oil out surprisingly! I'll give it a week or so longer. And see how it goes.

[@mackie_p]

Beautiful piece!

[@RoysRocks]

Looks good but... Will it hold together?

[@mackie_p]

@@RoysRocks I do not think so, but here's to hoping!

[@RoysRocks]

Lol thats the perfect attitude to have! 👍👌🤣

[@grant.0]

When do you think that you'll have the beginner parcels available? I can't wait!!

[@RoysRocks]

When I stop being so lazy. I'm half way through sorting I think then putting them together will be the easy part.

[@stevensstones]

I'm sure roy will sell you a very nice parcel but global prospecting has an ebay page with lots of nice ethiopian! Just for future reference!

[@jamesanagnos6123]

@@GlobalProspecting nothing listed on your page is AAA grade stop lying to people

[@misterpillar5196]

I prefer Australian opal because it has more varietes of opal than Ethiopian ,it is more stable (Ethiopian gets water then loses color and begins to crack as it loses water).I don't like when I search for genuine black australian opal on Ebay and pages after pages I see only Ethiopian "black opal" which is heated to get that black background .You should try to get Andamooka opal it is my second favorite type of Australian Opal after Coober Pedy Opal.And it is considered most stable type of Opal in the World :)

[@RoysRocks]

Yeah i still feel the same way. Just not robust enough for my liking. I get annoyed when anything non black opal comes up as black opal lol. People know black means money!

[@RoysRocks]

Also I do have some matrix but I'm typically not a huge fan. Talking to a few of the opal shops here in Adelaide they won't buy or sell the stuff. Not worth their time apparently.

[@MohamedAli-gg3gd]

Those crystals will always be fragile but normal milky welos wegel tena are the toughest opals and are even more tougher than australian and dont have a crazing issue like non hydrophane opals as they can suck up water from the moisture in the air and release when it whwn needed

[@MohamedAli-gg3gd]

By the i have lots of rough and live in WA give me a yella if you like

[@RoysRocks]

I would be very interested in finding someone like yourself located in Aus with a good supply of stable Ethiopian opal. Would love to play with it some more.

[@Pjkeukens]

I’ve purchased from Marc Maison on opalauctions.com they have nice material and no oil! I’ve cut nice and stable stones from their material and no cracks. I was wondering tough if polishing with cerium would make the cerium go in the stone. I had the idea mine where a bit cloudier after polishing with cerium but still nice stuff!

[@RoysRocks]

I will definitely check out any that don't have any of this disgusting oil in them! Cerium is pretty small and non transparent so I reckon it could get trapped in there. This piece will probably break so I can test that out on a piece. I'm all about trying things on this channel and no idea is too stupid to try!

[@kcchapman3630]

Who ever sold you the opals smoked them. It's a process they usually do after they've been polished to bring out the color. Again go to gemrockauctions.com and buy dry opals. Read my other post to you to know how to make offers to the dealers on there. Have a good one.

[@RoysRocks]

Yeah I thought as much on this one. It feels heavily treated though there are many people saying it is not in the comments and that it is instead a non-hydrophane variety. The tacky oil is a sign that it was at minimum oiled and heated. I do have a few potentially good suppliers lined up for future purchases.

[@jamesanagnos6123]

the rough that you got is pure crapolla ,they saw you comming buddy hahaha

[@RoysRocks]

Yeah it wasn't great that is for sure but these early videos got me in touch with a lot of helpful people which was the dream so worked out well.

[@keduskotsifis4856]

What machine do you use to carve opals?

[@RoysRocks]

Depends but mostly an Ozito rotary tool or Dremel stylo.

[@modernfossil8866]

I sell both Ethiopian crystal opal and Welo opal, this one that your working on seems to be the crystal opal. The Ethiopian crystal opal is meant to stay wet or oiled and used as specimen only for it will crack once you dry it out.

[@RoysRocks]

Yeah have learnt that now but have also started developing ways to allow it to dry without cracking and it is looking promising...

[@modernfossil8866]

@@RoysRocks great , I haven't watch the rest of your videos ,so are you just drying them out slowly

[@RoysRocks]

@@modernfossil8866 Yeah there are a few methods currently underway so videos will come out if they are or are not successful. I dont work with a lot of Ethiopian opal but will work more in the future.

[@fdaman3915]

That rock is beautiful

[@RoysRocks]

Hopefully I have more time soon to work with more Ethiopian opal. I have a few waiting.

[@mizzify]

Just tagged you on IG on margies page. She's the ethiopian opal queen and seems really nice and helpful x

[@RoysRocks]

Cool I'll do one of my rare instagram log ins. I gotta get better at that.

[@andreameigs1261]

By "clean" water, he means not your crappy, hard, mineral laden tap water. He means RO or distilled water that has zero to very few TDS. He does NOT mean bottled drinking water which has added salts for flavor.

[@RoysRocks]

I could use milliq water to go ultra extreme but if water of that clarity is needed thats only adding to the negatives list for Ethiopian opal.

[@frostypop934]

Another youtuber found that soaking the stone in acetone for 24 to 72 hours will remove discoloration from oil, hairspray, sweat, etc.

[@RoysRocks]

Yeah I've done that. Can also bleed out any dye in stones which is pretty cool.

[@rmg03c]

Will a solvent work to extricate the oil? And be sure to let us know about a good etheopian source if you find one. We noobs can learn from you where to go.

[@RoysRocks]

Possibly. Then I'd have to remove the solvent slowly without destabilizing the opal so might make it even more complicated. It's still in water and the oil is still coming out! Feels like it has been months!

[@rmg03c]

@@RoysRocks Solvents are typically volatile and evaporate rather quickly. What effect that would have on the oil, it would likely drive it out. The effect of the volatilization of the solvent on the opal...? I have no idea. I could drop one of my tiny ones into some isopropyl alcohol and test it. But mine are currently dry.

[@RoysRocks]

It's a bit of a risk on an Ethiopian. If it volatilises within the opal there is a good chance it may pop.

[@rmg03c]

@@RoysRocks If I understand correctly, the rock is porous. It should not build any pressure and the solvent, in this case, alcohol, will simply volatilize meaning it will simply evaporate. It will also produce a pressure gradient thus ‘sucking’ more of the alcohol out with it. Like xylem and phloem in plants. That’s the hypothesis anyway! 🤣 I’ve put a small piece of a nearly colorless sample several hours ago. I’ll pull it in another 7 or 8 hours and dab it dry to let it sit for a day or two. I’ll let you know how it goes. ☺️

[@RoysRocks]

@@rmg03c Can only test and see. Under a microscope I can see clogged channels in some of my ethiopian which is the concern. I'm happy to go with water for now. I dont think any solvent or surfactant will speed things up much though I may try.

[@placepages8071]

Looks like Ethiopian Crystal as opposed to Ethiopian Welo Opal. Crystal has been advertised to me before as Non Hydro & shipped in water!??) I have welo x 2 parcels .. completely dry will send you a DM link to look at...not sure if i can post ebay link here ! :) for your interest. i had 4 parcels 2 got bought straight away.. and yes prices are going up. colour is amazing...

[@RoysRocks]

Does the welo region not produce crystal opal? There is apparently non hydrophane stuff but sometimes it is a treatment that makes it no longer hydrophane. They know it can be a huge turnoff.

[@placepages8071]

@@RoysRocks maybe its from Welo too... not sure i literally only found out about the Crystal stuff TODAY.. i'll send you a link to a seller... i do notice it goes for WAY cheaper than the usual Welo stuff that gets shipped dry.... nice looking specimens but.... they say they ship in water and not to complain if it cracks so!...i almost bid but actually didn't in the end... but some good feedback on the crystal stuff. if i bought a specimen i would likely keep it as is for display/interest.. there's a really interesting video of a guy cutting a HUGE welo opal and..it goes wrong!! cracks after cutting...has to keep cutting etc...

[@coldopal5942]

@@RoysRocks So the Wello opal is from very high elevation and was the most recent discovery early/mid 2000's (the mines are near Wegel Tena). The Shewa province crystal opal was discovered in the nineties, and is surface deposit for the most part(7km sq approx). Both of these types are hydrophane, and take in similar amounts of water the crystal just won't lose its play of color when wet. There are heavy price controls on these stones (the gov technically owns all of the "mines") and its a difficult opal to source rough. Its sold in large parcels to commercial cutters in India, Indonesia, Malaysia etc. So Just be aware that any opal sources through those channels are likely cutters unwanted pieces. I'm also looking to buy some rough Wello that is not cutters unwanted pieces for an upcoming project so if you get some leads let me know!

[@RoysRocks]

@Place Pages I got your email. Hmm I have contacts now so I will have to have another chat to the master about it.

[@RoysRocks]

@Cold Opal Yeah I had heard it is quite a regulated commodity by the government over there. I guess I have to try and work on getting in contact with one of those large parcel exporters... Will keep you in the loop.

[@glennsowacke9752]

What speed should your dremel be set at for opal?

[@RoysRocks]

I rarely ran above 8000 rpm. No faster than about 12000 rpm if I am trying to speed grind through a lot of crusts with sintered diamond burs.

[@glennsowacke9752]

@RoysRocks Thanks Roy! I'm just getting started. Working with Ethiopian opal.

[@stevensstones]

That hydrophane will stick to your finger with any kind of moisture on it. That's it sucking the water off your finger!

[@RoysRocks]

The treatment process it has been put through wouldn't really let that happen but now that I have reversed some of it is starting to work like that.

[@danvango]

why not glue a stone inside the crater to stablize it

[@RoysRocks]

This one is long gone now. I have been given some much better ethiopian now and it is working out great. The only way to keep this one stable would have been to keep it smothered in oil unfortunately.

[@Der_Kleine_Mann]

I've sworn to myself to never buy anymore of that Ethiopian stuff. I mean even the smaller stones can look amazing when cut, but they're still not worth the work(for sale) and there is a lot of waste on this material. And the bigger really good stones are, as you found out, not sold by the rough. So, I go for Australian Opal any time.

[@RoysRocks]

Yeah I have never been a fan but I am interested in all things opal so I will probably play with them again in the future but ready for disappointment at all times. Aussie opal is tough to compete with thats for sure.

[@thechristiancarpenter]

👍

[@RoysRocks]

👍

[@Native_Wind]

I know exactly who you bought it from lol

[@RoysRocks]

Thankfully I get Ethiopian sent to me these days.

[@jamesanagnos6123]

this is what happens when you get involved in something you know nothing about

[@RoysRocks]

Like anything in life you have to start somewhere and it was the aim of the channel to capture exactly this outcome.

[@V27RV]

@@RoysRocks well said Roy