cracking around opal

[HJCourt]

I tried to encase my first gilson black opal the other day, but it cracked the boro all around it severely. I'm not sure what I did wrong. Any idea what could have caused the cracking? Everything looked great when I put it in my kiln.

[Jiggy Boro]

Never touched an opal once, but things crack some times, give it another try or 2 mate

[hashmasta-kut]

haha, good luck. i have thrown many out, and black ones are harder to encase than white ones, i dont know what to say... your first one :D

[misled youth]

when working with opals i find cooking the hell out of it seems to solve most cracking issues.
when you have a chunk of opal it has a lot of surface. super tiny air bubbles get trapped around the opal and in the little tiny valleys from the uneven breaks.
after you encase and condense get it round and just keep heating. a nice molten honey like ball is what ya want, keep it that way for awhile "30 seconds"
it will get bubbles you cant even see to round out and become safe.

also when the opal is being encased it reaches a temp that creates a slight haze. when you keep cooking the haze burns out making it much more stable.

encase a bunch and keep them on a punty in kiln. anneal while working for the day. shut down and let cool. next day you will have ones you know you can pretty much count on to be defect free. "because they did not shatter"

i have no idea how many opals i have done but it is in the several thousands. and this way to work best for me.

[Ogdunkryder]

No need to stick them in the kiln I always prep 10 or so opals first thing and just bench cool them. Also don't nuke them use a nice oxy rich flame and work the opal further bsck in the flame.

[ROGUE]

No need to stick them in the kiln I always prep 10 or so opals first thing and just bench cool them. Also don't nuke them use a nice oxy rich flame and work the opal further bsck in the flame.

Really?! Every opal I ever encased and didn't kiln violently exploded.

[istandalone24/7]

never had much luck bench cooling opals before. i always do as misled advised, no issues. funny too, because once or twice i swore i saw a haze develope, thought maybe i was losing my mind or just needed glasses lol.

[nodice]

Some opals come cracked before you even invade them....... I don't think heating them up a ton helps any. In fact, if you get the opal to hot, it burns out like dicro. On another note, get your opals at profound glass!

[hashmasta-kut]

i have bench cooled a few, its hit or miss. often they dont crack, it needs to be a perfect encasement, and a thick skin of glass i think.

[misled youth]

i have never had an opal burn that i can recall.

bench cooling? :)

and hell yeah PROFOUND GLASS

[Ogdunkryder]

Your doing something wrong Bench cool al day evrey day just stuck um in the kiln befor use. If they crack on you your not keeping an even heat base.

[hashmasta-kut]

since its on topic a great tip if you have a bubble or two you dont like encased close to the opal, is wipe them off. use a pinner flame, a cold 7mm rod or something like that and dig in till you can pull the bubble out, then let it reseal and get some clear to gather over it again :)

[nodice]

I have better luck swyping the bubbles to the side, or using a hot rod to push extra glass on there, moving the bubble off the opal with fresh glass automatically put in it's place. Of course, sometimes they come off just by heating the glass around the opal, and stretching it from both sides.

[HJCourt]

thanks for the advice. I'll give it a try. First I think I need to clean them. Should I soak them in alcohol or what is the best method for cleaning them?

[nodice]

I usually throw it on my shirt, spray with glass cleaner, ......, then put the end of a tube on my shirt, and flip it in.

[ROGUE]

thanks for the advice. I'll give it a try. First I think I need to clean them. Should I soak them in alcohol or what is the best method for cleaning them?
I was told to never even touch them. But told if they were dirty to soak them in 90% alc and something else I can't remember and then dry them with a link free rag or towel.

[hashmasta-kut]

dont have to dry them off, just place them on top of a hot kiln for a bit, or even just flame dry em. if they arent clean i drop them in iso then put them on the kiln on a nice clean spot.

[Neko]

Just did my First opal in a tube implosion and the surface of the opal looks really hazy or maybe cooked. Is there a point where the opal fries out or can this haze be cooked off? It looks like its covered in a billion microscopic bubbles but u cant distinguish even one single bubble i dont think i have a good enough camera to capture it. Any thoughts? Im seeing conflicting info on this thread Ps. .. They arent bubbles i was just trying to paint a mental picture.

[mistahead]

what kind of shirt??...i use to do this with an old hulkamania shirt, but i was having c.o.e issues so i switched up to a wrestlemania 6 ultimate warrior championship shirt (yes the one where he took the belt from hogan)...nothing but bling after that.

[istandalone24/7]

if you really want to be baller and kewl, you'll use a vintage Ocean Pacific tee shirt from 1991.

[istandalone24/7]

oh, Hobie tshirts work good too. anything pre 1993.

[Dom]

lol.. I always bench cool opals too, one out of ten cracks.. thats life..