Comments for Swordfish Speaks

Comment on March is flying in the Virgin Valley like a wet blanket. by Swordfish Mining

Swordfish Mining — Fri, 20 Apr 2012 15:58:05 +0000

Hiya; That is the Fluorescent opal the Peacock mined. I have a few larger pieces but am going to charge you 2 x what they would. 20 a pound. Mine is selected for the best UV light response and normal green color. I’ll email photo.

Comment on March is flying in the Virgin Valley like a wet blanket. by Steve S

Steve S — Thu, 19 Apr 2012 22:27:37 +0000

Hello, Opal blog!

I’ve been through Virgin Valley once, some few years ago, and picked up a few stunning specimens, which I keep in water. I have no experience cutting opal, and I won’t risk the few nice pieces I do have trying. One thing I did come across, was a few pieces of the common opal which is well…common to the area. The place we stopped at was selling it for 8 dollars a pound. It’s a fairly hard material. Breaks are glassy. Color is off white, with yellow/green, it’s milky translucent, and the material is strongly fluorescent, due to the presence of Uranium.

I’ve been wanting to experiment with cutting this, (I’m a faceter, not a cabber), for a specific project I have in mind, but I don’t have enough of the stuff to really get started. My test cuts, performed on smaller pieces, were more than satisfactory….the material polishes up quite nicely with Cerium Oxide, and the experimental cuts I did, after cutting out the more obvious imperfections, came out very nice. There is some visible striation, but for the project I have in mind, that shouldn’t be an issue.

My only problems now are that I’m 3000 miles away from Virgin Valley, and I have only a single small sample remaining of the common opal I need. I’m looking for larger pieces, from which I can cut cube shapes of approximately 1 inch per side. I need enough for four such pieces, so approximately half a pound.

I don’t know if Swordfish traffics in this interesting material, but if you do, could you drop me a line on what you would charge for select pieces of the stuff?

Comment on Virgin Valley Opal News by Swordfish Mining

Swordfish Mining — Mon, 16 Apr 2012 18:55:04 +0000

Howdy Loch; Thanks for contacting me. I’m always interested in any history from here, but particularly yours. Yes, I still have the claims where she used to live. I’d like to retire there as a gentleman miner. That would be the one with the friends camped in front of the bluff to the S/O of her house, N/O the springs in the creek. The old rangers razed her place and mine. I saw the photo of her and the kids with the dogs and coyotes there and it matches. I’ve seen a few nails and some of the wire from her guinea fowl pen. You can write me at usopal@lycos.com and I’m also on Facebook as myself.

Comment on Virgin Valley Opal News by Loch Ledford (named after Flora Haines Loughead)

Loch Ledford (named after Flora Haines Loughead) — Mon, 16 Apr 2012 07:30:44 +0000

Keith Hodson gave me your mine name and yours, John Church. I am Flora Lougheads great grandson. My dad, Allan Ledford, along with his mom, Hope Ledford (Loughead) and father Leroy, brother Oliver and sister Margret lived in a wash side 1 room shack around 1913 till 191?. Leroy worked in Flora’s Sunshine mine. We used to go out to exact place where their shack was and camp in the early 50′s. Dad would always reset the claim with a rock pile and tin with the claim note inside. Enough rambling. Is your mine on or near this site. I know it was opposite a great “chalk mountain” as we called it. The dugouts for animals could still be there. Can you help. Cheers. Loch

Comment on March is flying in the Virgin Valley like a wet blanket. by Edson

Edson — Sat, 07 Apr 2012 12:15:28 +0000

This is the truest dpesriction of this material and the ins & outs of cutting it I’ve yet to come across, and echoes what I’ve experienced, and spreading the word about, for the past year and a half. I first came across it in Feb 2009, and have had quite an experience obtaining more of the beautiful rough. I cut with a series of NOVA wheels with lots of water, and polish on a damp leather pad with French cerium oxide. It is tricky to eliminate flat spots; one must manipulate speeds and hand movements to get a truly smooth surface finish. My belief is if they’re going to crack, put them to the test right off the bat. Altough some do crack when initially hydrated, the ones that make it through the cutting process which I’ve found to be the vast majority are as stable as anything I’ve ever come across. I have original pieces going back to March 2009, and all look fine. What freaks some jewelry artists and gem buyers out and leaves them quite nervous is that the material is new. SO, it really doesn’t have a track record. My thought history will eventually show that this opal turns out to be VERY stable due to its hydrophane properties. If something can soak up water up to 10% of its weight and change color right before your eyes, and then go through a reverse process (numerous times, I’ve found out), and still not crack or craze I’ll take a risk on these for sure, especially considering the very low cost rough compared to comparable Aussie material.

Comment on Virgin Valley Opal News by Swordfish Mining

Swordfish Mining — Mon, 12 Mar 2012 18:18:13 +0000

Hiya Amy; Yes I still have some claims for sale. The large claim groups are probably out of play but the ink is not dry yet.

Comment on Virgin Valley Opal News by Amy Hansen

Amy Hansen — Sat, 10 Mar 2012 19:26:49 +0000

Do you have any claims still for sale?

Comment on Hello world! by Swordfish Mining

Swordfish Mining — Mon, 21 Nov 2011 15:17:57 +0000

The Way I use is visual but in a cut stone The Virgin Valley, Mexican, Ethiopian, Indonesian and other “volcanic” opals have the same appearance. The airy moving colors in crystals are most identifiable but the stones play of color is the complete range to the solid palette that Australian opal usually is. They have “noble” opal that is airy like ours but the more saturated stones were the preferred and that is where they started selling. Our opals are most identifiable in the rough. The matrix is the easy answer. Yes Virgin Valley is workable. The problem being the first drying. I do not have a bulletproof method…YOU can work it this way..never dry it, Slice it to slabs, grind to shape and presand, the most common treatment is Opticon and there is a good discussion on it’s use on the Village Smithy site. So you then finish the polish on the final treated stone. This is the best chance to get a big stone out of wet rough. On dry specimens of wood and opal (the wood is usually oporous) I soak it with Cyro acrylate (like hot shot, starbond, super t) Then slab or polish it. If the glue does not penetrate re glue it when shaped.

I dry mine first. Sometimes it will break into smaller pieces when rewet so if you are really scared of breaking it, don’t. Cut it dry slowly by hand.

Comment on Hello world! by David

David — Tue, 08 Nov 2011 20:59:54 +0000

can somebody disclose how to tell the difference between virgin valley opals & other opals. Is it possible to splice virgin valley opal specimens into penent size.

Comment on Memorial Day Weekend tailings digging at the Rainbow by Antony

Antony — Wed, 29 Jun 2011 16:21:00 +0000

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