I'm a complete beginner who just found this new hobby and am waiting for my first packs of beginners roughs to be delivered. Hoping for it to fit perfectly into the period when there is no gardening, and to be having a similar effect on letting go of my work-related stress. However, I can't buy equipment for thousands, and huge machinery and high throughput kind of erases the point with it for me (maybe I'll change my mind later :-)), so I'm aiming for "by hand". I've seen films about cutting lightning ridge opal by hand, and other films about cutting welo opal by hand (very few!), but none discussing the differences. The films I've seen are so different in how the work is described that it makes it difficult for a rookie like me: whats caused by the difference between stone types and whats caused by just difference between cutters? Like going through how would the process go if only working with sand paper on each type, how would the process change for each type if having also a dremmel, and possibly even how would it change when adding those more advanced lapidary tools.
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There is a lot of difference between many types of opal (and other stones). I think there are a few key ones to keep in mind though. 1/ Hardness: The hardness of the stone will indicate how easy it is to work by hand with softer stones being a little easier/quicker to work with by hand. Harder can also be more brittle. 2/ Hydrophane properties: Some opal (like Ethiopian) will react differently with water and this can effect the drying and working of the stone. 3/ Water content: Different hydrated silica stones will need to be considered as heat can cause problems.
4/ Soo many other factors.