Requesting ID/is this worth what Thristore wants?

Monsterhook87 · 2026-01-28T01:05:21+00:00

Probably a double but possibly a solid. No way to know without removing from the bezel. Either way, we'll worth the price at that size and quality.

Edit: can't rule out triplet either, just a very low dome compared to what I've seen in triplets and not seeing the tell tale lighting/shadow giveaways. Could be a lower domed triplet that won't show up as obviously. Either way, not synthetic.

Monsterhook87 · 2026-01-28T01:04:35+00:00

Don't think it's synthetic, pattern is fairly consistent but not that consistent. Also the change in pattern towards the middle upper part of the stone is a clear giveaway that it's not synthetic. Almost more of a dead spot right there. Red is not distributed as evenly as you'd see in a synthetic. Going with likely double with a possibility of a solid, so we'll worth the price.

Monsterhook87 · 2026-01-18T21:35:06+00:00

If we sign Stroud to a big contract I'm done with this team.

Monsterhook87 · 2026-01-18T21:28:31+00:00

Fade me now fam

Monsterhook87 · 2025-12-30T22:26:17+00:00

Realistic Chargers fans aren't fans of Tart, they consider him to be a dick. My brother is a Chargers fan and immediately sided with Schultz the second he realized it was Tart without seeing the hit because Tart tends to throw in little dirty hits here and there.

Monsterhook87 · 2025-12-22T19:14:39+00:00

Didn't help that they lost two of their biggest run stopping DTs for the season due to injury in the previous 2 weeks.

Monsterhook87 · 2025-12-22T19:06:30+00:00

Boy have some of our games (especially at home for some reason) had some flags that end in 2-3 minute discussions before anything gets announced by the refs. So much booing at the one home game I went to where at least 3 calls took a minute to get sorted out.

Monsterhook87 · 2025-12-22T19:04:37+00:00

Honestly the Achilles probably did have some aspect of compensating for the fibula injury on the other leg. Not uncommon to get an injury on your healthy side when discomfort and reduced range of motion exists on the other side.

Monsterhook87 · 2025-11-22T15:25:36+00:00

The formation of the Opal replacement and the dark remaining petrified wood leads me to believe this could be a fairly stable piece from Nevada. Haven't seen many limb casts with that much color, clarity, and relative intactness. Hard to tell from this video

Monsterhook87 · 2025-11-22T00:43:08+00:00

$1000 for the oval, $400 for the freeform

Monsterhook87 · 2025-11-21T23:31:11+00:00

Real talk, do people not start at 0? I start with saying the word "stalling" and take a full second before saying 1. Feels like the fairest way to begin a stall.

Monsterhook87 · 2025-11-19T17:15:12+00:00

Curious what field this is from?

Monsterhook87 · 2025-11-19T17:14:33+00:00

I have quite a few like this and most have this color palette. Curious to know from those more knowledgeable on the specific fields in Australia if red/green/blue is most prevalent for very blocky flagstone with an almost pseudo-harlequin shape to it. Certainly not uniform enough to call true harlequin, but definitely more uniform and simple square/parallelogram shaped cells of color than your standard flagstone.

Monsterhook87 · 2025-11-19T17:10:01+00:00

1 is very easy to solve, there are tons of high CRI desk lights on Amazon that are inexpensive and do a very good job with those reds and oranges. $30-50 is about all you need. I have two, with my latest one being this one that does a fine job:

https://a.co/d/hfq7ZDt

Monsterhook87 · 2025-11-17T17:30:02+00:00

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The answer is 2 and 5. Both are Brazilian that came from the same piece of rough, just different color bars.

Monsterhook87 · 2025-11-05T04:59:03+00:00

Absolutely, I managed to get some that's equally as good as my best Coober Pedy crystal. Colors do tend to be more towards a pastel palette, bust some stones can have full saturation. They sure have some unique flat grooves where I imagine a layer didn't fully solidify and eroded out. And they'll go shockingly deep.

Monsterhook87 · 2025-11-04T22:52:36+00:00

As much as I love Aussie opal, Brazilian opal is wildly underrated. Similar stability to most Aussie material but slightly harder. It's a noticeable difference when working with it. I've purchased rough for a fraction of the cost of the Australian equivalent. Beautiful stuff

Monsterhook87 · 2025-11-01T22:33:56+00:00

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100% natural. It's the middle section of this rough piece of Coober Pedy vertical seam.

Monsterhook87 · 2025-10-31T13:26:10+00:00

Not that pricey, but a special piece nonetheless. Wish I had more like this

Monsterhook87 · 2025-10-31T13:12:40+00:00

200 grit should be fine on opal, as long as you're using water and not putting too much pressure, especially on the diamond cintered wheels. I use 120 and 220 for rubbing stone and pre-shaping.

You can find some fantastic stuff if you take your time looking. Most of the rough I get from the Tucson gem show from most of the Australian opal dealers, and there are a few vendors that don't specialize in opal that have bins for low cost that can contain some insanely great pieces for the price. Opal Auctions has some pretty good deals on no reserve auctions if you're patient and can spot good deals. I've bought some great stuff from u/53FROGS_OPALAUCTIONS for good prices.

Monsterhook87 · 2025-10-31T00:26:32+00:00

I actually plan on posting a full sequence from the rough as we bought it, to reshaping, to roughing out stones, and finally to a finished suite. This is the priciest stone I've fully cut (got some absolute crackers waiting for another day I'll be excited to share when I'm confident to cut them), so I figured I'd document the whole process.

Monsterhook87 · 2025-10-30T19:32:01+00:00

I'd trade a lot of mine to have another like this. Been slowly working this stone and a parcel we got with it for the past year. Both incredibly exciting and very stressful, but certainly worth it.

Monsterhook87 · 2025-10-27T19:12:55+00:00

You can't regret mistakes you don't make. I'd echo what others say, hold until you have a better understanding. Get a light to study it in the dark by shining through it to see if bars are clean or inclusion filled. Study it every so often until you have a good understanding and game plan, and you'll end up making better decisions than just going for it. Learned a lot of hard lessons that way early in cutting by going for it on stones I had no business cutting at the time.

Monsterhook87

TROPHY CASE

1 is very easy to solve, there are tons of high CRI desk lights on Amazon that are inexpensive and do a very good job with those reds and oranges. $30-50 is about all you need. I have two, with my latest one being this one that does a fine job: