Alan Morrison
Member
This wee piece of opal is just 1.5mm thick and was a challenge to incorporate into a pen.
The bog oak is X cut with aluminium and myrtle ends.
The bog oak is X cut with aluminium and myrtle ends.
A sliver of opal in bog oak
- Thread starter Alan Morrison
- Start date
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leehljp
Member Liaison
Excellent pen. I love the opal. Where do you get the opal blank?
Alan Morrison
Member
Cheers Hank. I asked Roy at the above site about his opal and he very kindly sent me a couple of samples. One was 1mm thick and the other a small block. I put some info in my previous posting of a couple of pens with opal.
It is not a cheap medium to work with.
Oh that's cool! Love seeing new stuff being used.
What do you think of it as a material? Would you use it again? I have no experience of it myself (neither natural nor lab made) but I'm surprised you can get it so thin. Is it like a hard resin?
What do you think of it as a material? Would you use it again? I have no experience of it myself (neither natural nor lab made) but I'm surprised you can get it so thin. Is it like a hard resin?
Alan Morrison
Member
Ash, I don't have much experience with resin but would say that this lab opal is very hard, a bit brittle to turn, but saying that, I have not had any difficulty with it. I have been looking at different ways of incorporating it into a pen. The sliver in the pen above was cut off at the table saw just to straighten up the block and I didnt want to waste it, so I took a slot out of the bog oak blank after I had glued in the tube and then set the opal into the slot with 2-part epoxy.