After the miner has his rough the first stage is to saw the rough .Most opal cutting factories near the opal mine will have large saw blades to cut the rock into manageable pieces ,so most cutters will need 6 inch saw blades as most lapidary cutting machines are made for this size

0.30 thicknesses is good for first cuts but when you get down to actual opal colour to slice you really need thin bar 0.12 to0.18 or even thinner but these can be expensive

Thicker saws tend to chip opal colour so best to keep one saw for rough and one saw for slicing opals or more delicate work.

Mini saw blades are also on dremel drills and these should only be used for drilling out sandy potch or cutting this piece off a slab.

After dobbing than move onto diamond grinding wheels and Diamond Pacific has good reputation with diamond grinding or resin bond polishing wheels in different grits .A six wheeler cutting machines with good water flow can start with grinding wheel 220 or 360 600 grit ,and polishing wheels 1200,3000,8000 grit. Chinese imports wheels are cheap but these wheels do not last long and many fall apart with very little use.

For boulder opals cutters use lot dremel work and diamond coated drills are popular ,especially 30 piece rotary Burr set so covers all sizes you need to drill into opals and make sure you use plenty water drilling into boulder opals. Next stage is resin coasted drills which are also diamond impregnated in different grits

For polishing most cutters use lapsa or cerium oxide, Tin Cerium Chrome alumina linde and you can use pig leather polishing pad or new Gemshow lapidary polishing disc

Display boxes are available once you have finished polishing your opal

Also you will nee d calibrators and scales to measure and weight your opals

Enjoy cutting an d polishing opals as rewarding hobby or serious professional always use safety gear googles n mask when working with opals as silica can cause lung problems