How To Cut Hyalite Opal / Bubble Opal From Milford, UT

Wondering how to cut hyalite opal/bubble opal, but don’t know where to start? In this tutorial, I’ll show how I cut this material starting from how to select your rough to getting that perfectly shiny final polish. It’s best if you have a basic understanding on how to make a cabochon to start with.

This kind of hyalite opal is only found in one known place: Milford, UT and currently run under the Rock Dreams Claim (as of 2021 when we visited). Mark and Pam Marriot, the wonderful owners, have opened their claim to fee digs to collect this rare and special material. You can find out more about some of the other opals they find there (like wildfire and bacon opal) on their Facebook page or contact them about collecting material: / wildfirebubbleopalclaim

I have to make a shout-out to Kenneth Shelley, our amazing guide out at the claim, who helped put us on some spectacular material and also answered all my questions on how to cut this material since it can be a little intimidating at first!

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Chapters:
0:00 Introduction to Hyalite
0:59 Selecting Material from Rough
7:19 Sawing Hyalite Opal Rough
7:31 Analyzing Sawed Rough
16:27 Selecting Cabochon Shape
17:53 Making a Hyalite Opal Cabochon
20:51 Finished!