Doc's Opal Bench
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This is a visit to Doc's territory. The place where he
cuts fabulous opals. You will start to understand why we are building a whole new
building on our land to provide a totally separate facility for our business. Right
now the business is located in the walk out basement of our home and takes up the entire
space.
I took photos one day while Doc was cutting opals. I have
photographs of four of them to show you and one of them was almost immediately set into a
ring which we also show. the finished product is an opal cabochon. (It is
pronounced cab (as in taxi) o (as in Oh Dear) chon (as in shon - as in shh and on - as in
Sean Connery) - kinda). A cabochon is a stone ready to be used in jewelry that is
rounded and not faceted. We cover this term and others on the Doc's Corner Page in the glossary.
Doc starts by gluing a piece of rough to a dop (mostly he uses nails).
In the past he has used dopping wax, but now prefers the glue.
Here is one piece of rough glued onto the dop.
Doc uses many graduated grits on the lap while cutting the opals.
Water is dripping onto the disk that you see below. Opals are always cut wet
to prevent them from overheating and cracking.
Doc is shaping the rough into the basic cabochon shape
Still shaping...
Each individual stones is checked over and over and over during this
process. The opals go through a series of wheels like the one above, each is a
progressively finer grit. As he finishes a step on each dopped opal, he places it
into a container to await the next step. He usually works many opals at a time
through the steps.
Checking the calibration. This is another step that is repeated
multiple times throughout the process.
At last we are ready for final polishing. The wheel below uses
diamond compound with an extender. There are three of these steps.
More checking...
When he is finally satisfied that the opal is as good as he can
possibly make it he soaks the opal in acetone to remove the glue.
Then he redops the opal this time from the top in order to go back and
chamfer the bottom edge of the opal.
These are four of the opals that he cut the day that I was taking my
photos. The same set of four is featured in each photo. They look
very different over a dark background than over a white background because three of them
are crystal opals.
 
The largest opal from the set above was immediately sold and set into
this custom ring. In the ring, the metal under the stone was blackened to make the
colors in the crystal opal more visible.
If you would like to see photos of the fabrication of this ring visit Liz's Jewelry Bench.
I looked at the series of photos above and tried to see what was not
there. The first missing step would be - if he needed to reduce the size of the
rough, he would saw the piece of opal with the small trim saw with a very thin blade.
Then after flattening one side of the rough on the roughest wheel that he uses,
with the aid of a template he would draw the shape of the stone he intended to cut out of
the stone.
I cannot photograph his infinite patience, cutting, checking,
cutting, checking, cutting, checking. As he nears the end of a grit he starts drying
the opal off with a Kleenex every time that he stops to check it. You cannot see the
scratches while the opal is wet. He looks across the top of the opal in a
strong light to look for scratches. He does not progress to the next grit until he
is totally satisfied that there are no scratches left from the prior step. When he
is finished the surface of the opal resembles glass. And if you are wondering, this
is the way that he approaches everything. It takes a great of patience to be a
really good opal cutter. You just cannot be in a hurry.
If your computer is Java enabled, you can
click on the link below to talk with us if we are on line. If we are not on
line, you can send us an email message. If you are not Java enabled you can talk to
us on the Chat Room Page using AOL Instant Messenger which is available for free.
Gold Rush Jewelry, Bead and Art Company
P.O. Box 635 Fairplay, CO 80440
719-836-2143
719-836-0831
You are welcome to call us. These numbers ring at our home and studio which are located in
the same place. Just place your call at some reasonable hour for our time zone which is
Mountain Time in the United States. You may also contact us by email at any of the
addresses below.
goldrush@starband.net
opal@opalopal.com
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