Opal comes in precious and common. I've never had any precious, but I did happen upon some of the common opal.
Back in the 80's, when I started in lapidary, I went to an auction that had some lapidary supplies. I bought a box of mixed items for $5. Some tin oxide and cerium oxide polishing powder, dopp sticks, some metal templates for cutting cabs and so on. When I got home and emptied the box I was surprised to find a glass tube filled with colored stones hidden in the bottom of the box. I had to show them to someone with more experience than me to find out what they were. Turns out they are Mexican fire opals, or Mexican jelly opals if they don't have the colored specks dancing around inside the stone.
I ground and polished one of the stones into a cab.
A friend of mine lives in WA state and is a geologist and knapper. He went on a field trip to a modern working basalt quarry somewhere in WA. While on the tour, he noticed a fissure in some basalt that had opal in it. He chiseled out a chunk and cut some small slabs on his rock saw. He sent me one and I chipped a Folsom point out of it around 1990. This is common green opal and is the only opal arrowhead I've ever seen. Gary
Back in the 80's, when I started in lapidary, I went to an auction that had some lapidary supplies. I bought a box of mixed items for $5. Some tin oxide and cerium oxide polishing powder, dopp sticks, some metal templates for cutting cabs and so on. When I got home and emptied the box I was surprised to find a glass tube filled with colored stones hidden in the bottom of the box. I had to show them to someone with more experience than me to find out what they were. Turns out they are Mexican fire opals, or Mexican jelly opals if they don't have the colored specks dancing around inside the stone.
I ground and polished one of the stones into a cab.
A friend of mine lives in WA state and is a geologist and knapper. He went on a field trip to a modern working basalt quarry somewhere in WA. While on the tour, he noticed a fissure in some basalt that had opal in it. He chiseled out a chunk and cut some small slabs on his rock saw. He sent me one and I chipped a Folsom point out of it around 1990. This is common green opal and is the only opal arrowhead I've ever seen. Gary
