l really enjoyed watching you show us 'how to'. lm going to get a small rotary tool and give this a go.. l love that you dont know what if anything is going to be revealed. lt will look really good wrapped. Thanks Roy
Its always a mystery and there is always a gem on the horizon. I did actually use this stone as a practice piece for wrapping and it has been through a lot of torture so far.
Thankyou for this video, I've been waiting for tips on pre polish, I've been using nova tips but didn't go to a high enough grit, so my piece was still dull after polish, so thankyou again for this video it's really helped me.
No worries dan. Some pieces can get a reasonable prepolish at 1200 but most will require a run over with a 3000 then you can finish it off with a range of diamond pastes or straight cerium oxide.
It looks really nice, Roy. Subjecting it to torture next....... Lol. You are a crack up.😂. Can't wait for the next installment. Reckon it will look great wire wrapped. Have a great day.
Think if your doing boulder opal rubs you might want to use a drip system for the water it may help to see the stone better. I think I want to try some bolder opal but first I need to replace the bearings in my foredom..............Be well and be safe....Bill \
Yeah I cut with running water when not on camera but the constant drip while recording gets to messy and i dont want any of my recording gear to get damaged.
Cant wait to see your next attempt at wrapping ...hope you are going to tag #YvonneWilliams lol and just in case you were wondering ....but you probably weren't....it was me who suggested you check out Yvonnes channel in the first place lol oh and I loved your commentary while you were wrapping the first opal.....too funny !!
My and Yvonne have been emailing back and forth since the first wire wrap. Thank you for pointing me in her direction I am going to build up the skills and confidence needed to try following some more of her tutorials as soon as I can! Might even have some collaboration ideas in the pipeline... but thats a secret.
would you selectively grind out the iron stone after rubbing it to the state as it was in the beginning? It would leave a more natural, craggy, bumpy surface instead of a smooth surface but at the benefit of having more percentage of surface area with opal. I'm sure there are many areas where there's beautiful opal beneath a tenth of a millimeter of ironstone at the surface. But if you got rid of that depth all the way around the stone for a smooth surface, you would grind off a tenth of a millimeter of opal sitting on top of ironstone, which you would then lose. Afterwards you can still polish it of course. That way you could sneakily get rid of the holes, too.
Yeah kind of. The gamble is that you could lose everything and just find a pitted ironstone beneath the layer you currently have. It just comes down to how willing you are to lose what you have but with beginners rough that risk is very low so if you work on some and think there is something better just below the surface I always like to go for it. You get better at reading the opal through experimenting and I could tell thats this piece wasn't going to get much better after reaching this layer. But you can never be 100% sure.
That looks like a good one to use for experiments. If I were working on it, I likely would have decreased the size a little to get rid of the sand at the bottom (or at least make the patch smaller) and the sand on the back and side, and I would definitely have put a thin layer of resin on it to fill in the pores. But, then the selling value likely would have gone down with those treatments. My thinking is that it would be a way to rescue a lower grade piece and offer it at a more affordable price to someone who would really like the subtly of the colour in the piece. I'm interested now to see what you do with the wire wrapping. Maybe use wire that's a smaller gauge than the last one. :-) I am enjoying your videos.
Yeah all reasonable ideas. The colour around that sandy stripe is unforunately the best colour in the piece. I dont resin treat any pieces but it done very often so might use this as an example piece to show people how to do that as well. Lol I'll try to go with a smaller gauge wire for the next few so I can do it with just my fingers this time =)
@@RoysRocks Yes, resin is certainly not the best idea, and I like to keep stones natural, if at all possible. lol... yeah, that would be a good way to attack it. Wire wrappers do use small pliers with their projects, but sparingly and gently. It will be interesting to see your wire work.
Just the polish during this stage. Between Part 1 and 2 I did got 1mm deeper just to even the piece out and find a little more pattern but not really. The novas dont grind off too much stone especially past 600 grit (brown).
I have wanted to try my hand at making some arrow heads but not sure boulder opal would work? I assumed it wouldn't be glassy enough to do properly but I guess I could cheat and flex shaft it.
I just bought some low quality rough. Could it look horrible but still end up good after you get down into it? Or is it always easy to tell if it's not any good?
Sometimes a piece of nothing can transform into something wonderful. Especially with boulder. An interesting pattern/picture or just one seam of strong colour and you'll make something out of nothing.
@@RoysRocks ok that's what I was hoping for. I was hoping you could get down into it and there be color that you couldn't tell from looking at the piece. I don't know anything about opal really. I bought it to start learning.
@@RoysRocks im excited. I'll be watching all kinds of videos when I get them. I am going to try it with just a dremel. I bought some diamond bits and saw blades.
@@RoysRocks Well, I guess that’s the truth. I have some Boulder opal and I have been working away at it but just with idea of removing more ironstone to see if I can and if there’s anything brighter underneath. Also what’s the difference between Boulder opal and Koroit opal?
Sorry relying on google translate but will try. This is not sandstone it is boulder opal (ironstone) and a piece like this costs almost nothing. Low grade pieces like this you can get for just $1-2 and is great practice material.
Wow, nice, way better than I expected!
Ironstone does take a surprisingly nice polish if you give it time.
Man i stumbled across this video of yours tonight b4 bed..made extra even more then usual my respect and appreciation for your videos Roy.
Luv it
Thanks man. I saw this stone the other day. Think I'll be trying another wire wrap on it.
Thanks again as always really informative and I can’t wait to see a bit of wire wrapping
It aint great but you can see a few videos on the channel already.
l really enjoyed watching you show us 'how to'.
lm going to get a small rotary tool and give this a go..
l love that you dont know what if anything is going to be revealed.
lt will look really good wrapped.
Thanks Roy
Its always a mystery and there is always a gem on the horizon. I did actually use this stone as a practice piece for wrapping and it has been through a lot of torture so far.
I need to try those nova tips!! Using diamond paste is a pain. Love how that boulder opal turned out.
They are certainly much easier to use. Probably a little slower but work very well and less of a mess.
Thankyou for this video, I've been waiting for tips on pre polish, I've been using nova tips but didn't go to a high enough grit, so my piece was still dull after polish, so thankyou again for this video it's really helped me.
No worries dan. Some pieces can get a reasonable prepolish at 1200 but most will require a run over with a 3000 then you can finish it off with a range of diamond pastes or straight cerium oxide.
It looks really nice, Roy. Subjecting it to torture next....... Lol. You are a crack up.😂. Can't wait for the next installment. Reckon it will look great wire wrapped. Have a great day.
Yeah. I'll be trying a much easier wrapping design so I am hopeful.
Have a good day. Chilly morning in Adelaide.
Think if your doing boulder opal rubs you might want to use a drip system for the water it may help to see the stone better. I think I want to try some bolder opal but first I need to replace the bearings in my foredom..............Be well and be safe....Bill
\
Yeah I cut with running water when not on camera but the constant drip while recording gets to messy and i dont want any of my recording gear to get damaged.
Loving this, subscribed!
Thanks Bob and welcome to the channel.
You will rock it lol. Pun intended.i wait for your next adventure.
So do I... hang on. I dont have to wait, I can just start it now!
Cant wait to see your next attempt at wrapping ...hope you are going to tag #YvonneWilliams lol and just in case you were wondering ....but you probably weren't....it was me who suggested you check out Yvonnes channel in the first place lol oh and I loved your commentary while you were wrapping the first opal.....too funny !!
My and Yvonne have been emailing back and forth since the first wire wrap. Thank you for pointing me in her direction I am going to build up the skills and confidence needed to try following some more of her tutorials as soon as I can!
Might even have some collaboration ideas in the pipeline... but thats a secret.
would you selectively grind out the iron stone after rubbing it to the state as it was in the beginning? It would leave a more natural, craggy, bumpy surface instead of a smooth surface but at the benefit of having more percentage of surface area with opal. I'm sure there are many areas where there's beautiful opal beneath a tenth of a millimeter of ironstone at the surface. But if you got rid of that depth all the way around the stone for a smooth surface, you would grind off a tenth of a millimeter of opal sitting on top of ironstone, which you would then lose. Afterwards you can still polish it of course. That way you could sneakily get rid of the holes, too.
Yeah kind of. The gamble is that you could lose everything and just find a pitted ironstone beneath the layer you currently have. It just comes down to how willing you are to lose what you have but with beginners rough that risk is very low so if you work on some and think there is something better just below the surface I always like to go for it.
You get better at reading the opal through experimenting and I could tell thats this piece wasn't going to get much better after reaching this layer. But you can never be 100% sure.
That looks like a good one to use for experiments. If I were working on it, I likely would have decreased the size a little to get rid of the sand at the bottom (or at least make the patch smaller) and the sand on the back and side, and I would definitely have put a thin layer of resin on it to fill in the pores. But, then the selling value likely would have gone down with those treatments. My thinking is that it would be a way to rescue a lower grade piece and offer it at a more affordable price to someone who would really like the subtly of the colour in the piece.
I'm interested now to see what you do with the wire wrapping. Maybe use wire that's a smaller gauge than the last one. :-) I am enjoying your videos.
Yeah all reasonable ideas. The colour around that sandy stripe is unforunately the best colour in the piece. I dont resin treat any pieces but it done very often so might use this as an example piece to show people how to do that as well.
Lol I'll try to go with a smaller gauge wire for the next few so I can do it with just my fingers this time =)
@@RoysRocks Yes, resin is certainly not the best idea, and I like to keep stones natural, if at all possible.
lol... yeah, that would be a good way to attack it. Wire wrappers do use small pliers with their projects, but sparingly and gently. It will be interesting to see your wire work.
@@kathybirkett7986 "It will be interesting to see your wire work." The end product will definitely have some comedic value I can promise you that. =)
@@RoysRocks :-) I like comedy! Actually, having tried wire wrapping myself, you did quite well on your first attempt. It gets better with practice.
@@kathybirkett7986 Well practice I shall!
Why wouldn't you put a link to the 1st part in the description?...
I could do it but this was very early on in the youtube channel. Lots of small optimizations like that weren't really thought about too much.
Nice Roy, did the colour just get better because of polish or did going a bit deeper reveal more colour?
Just the polish during this stage. Between Part 1 and 2 I did got 1mm deeper just to even the piece out and find a little more pattern but not really. The novas dont grind off too much stone especially past 600 grit (brown).
I'd of made a awesome Shark Tooth or an Arrow Head... it's perfect for either 😎👍
I have wanted to try my hand at making some arrow heads but not sure boulder opal would work? I assumed it wouldn't be glassy enough to do properly but I guess I could cheat and flex shaft it.
I just bought some low quality rough. Could it look horrible but still end up good after you get down into it? Or is it always easy to tell if it's not any good?
Sometimes a piece of nothing can transform into something wonderful. Especially with boulder.
An interesting pattern/picture or just one seam of strong colour and you'll make something out of nothing.
@@RoysRocks ok that's what I was hoping for. I was hoping you could get down into it and there be color that you couldn't tell from looking at the piece. I don't know anything about opal really. I bought it to start learning.
@@silkyjohnson4519 Boulder is fun to learn. Most of my biggest surprise pieces were Boulder opal.
@@RoysRocks im excited. I'll be watching all kinds of videos when I get them. I am going to try it with just a dremel. I bought some diamond bits and saw blades.
@@silkyjohnson4519 I'd suggest getting a flex shaft attachment for safety but also it makes it much easier and you use it just like a pen.
جميل جدا يا صديقي
Thank you.
If you start dremeling, how do you know when to stop?
You never really know with some pieces. Eventually you just don't want it to become too thin or change the shape further.
@@RoysRocks Well, I guess that’s the truth. I have some Boulder opal and I have been working away at it but just with idea of removing more ironstone to see if I can and if there’s anything brighter underneath. Also what’s the difference between Boulder opal and Koroit opal?
@@Urban_Piggy Koroit opal is a boulder opal from the Koroit region.
5:28 Why going down in Grit, if anyone can explain it to me
I had a quick look and I dont see a point where I go down in grit? Black 280, Brown 600, Grey 1200 and Rose 3000.
Te vendieron arenisca a precio de ópalo yo esto no lo compro ni borracho
Sorry relying on google translate but will try.
This is not sandstone it is boulder opal (ironstone) and a piece like this costs almost nothing.
Low grade pieces like this you can get for just $1-2 and is great practice material.