[Jewelry making - Article 00269] - Re: [Orchid] Restoring finish to opal

[richard hart]

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>           In reality, virtually all opals will craze or crack in
>     time....some will do it early, others take years. 

    I have opals I cut 20 years ago, I still have them, they are not
    cracked and not crazed. Lalique made pieces with opal, I believe in
    the late 1800's, I saw them at L.A. county museum. They were not
    cracked, not crazed. I  have about a pound of opal I have had for 20
    years, uncut. Very few pieces have crazed. The most unstabile is
    Mexican jelly opal or Virgin Valley, Idaho. 

    In my experience, most opals are cracked by the wearer smacking it
    against something and shattering it. I believe that it is a myth
    that opals dry out. I live in Denver, low humidity, very dry
    dehydrating environment, and we have had very good success at
    carrying opal at our retail store for over 10 years.  A few doublets
    have seperated, and a few have spontaniously combusted.(kidding) 

    Over time, some opals can craze, compared to how many I have, the
    number that did craze would not be a deterant for me to not work
    with them. I have paid $5,000 an ounce for some material,so I would
    be very unhappy if my investment disintegrated over time. What I
    have has gone up in value as some opal mining areas are not as
    productive now as they once were. 

    I am not discrediting your experience, it just that my experience
    seems to have been different. While cutting opals I have never
    ruined the color by overheating, or cracked one during cutting or
    polishing. I have gone through color layers, and lost value by
    grinding away too much, and I have oriented opal wrong so the best
    color was visible only at a significantly tilted angle. 

    Repolishing opal usually involves resanding as wearing causes
    scratches and pitting. Polishing usually does not help unless the
    scratches and pits are removed. 

Richard in Denver

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