I Can't Believe What's Inside! "The Swan" 52.4 ct Opal

I uncover an opal gemstone from a sandy piece of Australian rough opal. The opal is probably from Coober Pedy, South Australia. Grinding the sides of the stone reveals bright color--we see serious potential in the stone. More grinding shows one side of the stone has a fantastic thick color bar. The reverse only has low-grade opal. I then grind the stone to reveal the good side. The opal has some flaws, so I discuss strategies for removing them. After more grinding, I remove the flaws. I then shape and polish the stone, crafting a 52-carat museum-quality piece that I will use to make beautiful opal jewelry (a pendant/necklace). In a future video I will design the jewelry setting to be fabricated. Finally, I'll set the stone to make an opal pendant worthy of royalty. (It's that good!)

I hope that you enjoy the video and my other videos that cover rough Australian opal, Ethiopian opal, Mexican opal, Brazilian opal, Australian boulder opal, Andamooka matrix opal and others. I also do videos on lapidary, including agate, jasper and many other stones.

I recommend the the videos of Rookie Rockhounding:
   / @rookie_rockhounding  


Table of Contents
00:00 – Start of video
00:23 – Original rough opal
00:58 – Start of Cutting
01:32 – Sides of stone revealed
02:50 – Grinding the back
03:19 – Grinding the front
04:24 – Evaluating the progress and problems
05:40 – Sanding and shaping
06:06 – Polishing
06:26 – Final Stone
06:51 – Outtakes – The Best Part!
10:24 – Final comments!