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Hello all fossil-friends! (I'm not sure whether this is in the right thread, if it's not I'd love the admins to put it where it's meant to be .) Anyways, I wanted to tell everyone that their is a big fossil market at Ede (Netherlands) this weekend, and that I would love you to come! It is organized by the Paleobiologische Kring van Nerderland/Vlaanderen (Paleobiological Group of Netherlands/Flanders), the Werkgroep Fossielen Wageningen (Workgroup Fossils Wageningen), and the famous Fossiel.NET (basically a Dutch version of TFF); many other organizations/museums will be there too. There will be plenty of stuff to do: amateur-paleontologist encounters, fossil IDing by experts, fossil trading, fossil buying/selling, lectures by paleontologists, prep demonstrations, and many other fun fossil-related activities/workshops! Here's the info you need to know: Date: Saturday 11th March 2017 Time: 10:30 till 16:00 Address: Het ROVC, Galvanistraat 13, 6716 AE, Ede, NETHERLANDS Entry fee: FREE! Stuff to bring with you: fossils you are willing to trade, to prep, to get IDd, etc; and some money. No food needed (drinks and food available). Here is a link with all the information you need: https://english.fossiel.net/beursede/ BUT: this is only for fossils, so NO minerals, artifacts, etc.! I will of course be there, and I hope that you will also be. I hope to see you there! Max PS: I'm not an organizer or anything of the event, I'm just telling everyone about it so that there will be more people to meet.

Anybody ever try this mini sandblaster from Micromark for fossil preparation? I would be amazed if it worked but thought I would ask: http://www.micromark.com/microlux-grit-blaster,13027.html

Hey guys! So I thought that I would start a new blog here. I have been looking for videos and other instructional material on line for how to prep / clean a fossil and have not found much. Google did not seem to be to helpful in this matter. I did find a few more things on this forum and they were very helpful. I learned what materials I needed and some techniques of how to clean fossils, but nothing like "Make sure to do this.....", "don't do this....". So I was able to gain access to my School's Palio and geoscience lab, and we put together a fossil prep lab. Now it may not be as fancy as a museum but it works!! And I am excited to work there! I may also be able to go to a nearby museum and be trained in how to do this as well. We will see. So I have some trilobites from the wheeler shale formation, in Dugway Utah, that I will be practicing on. The point of this is to get my skills high enough to be able to work on other fossils with out damaging them, for a research project I am involved in. In the video I show you what I do and talk about why and also talk about what I do wrong and how I fixed them. Please feel free to talk about this and to give advice. Here is a video of what I have been able to do so far. I started a youtube channel so that everyone can see what I am doing. https://youtu.be/sS_wvF4v2VE I have more info in my blog. So please go check it out and follow it so you can get updates right away! http://www.thefossilforum.com/index.php?/blog/165-fossil-preparation-blog/ You can also subscribe to my youtube channel and find me on Facebook as well!

Hello everyone! So i have been hard at work. Last time I damaged a couple of fossils because the PSI on the sandblasting machine was too high while I was working on removing matrix directly off the fossil. This time I learned that higher pressures like 20 or 40 PSI can be useful for removing large amounts of matrix that are not directly touching the fossil. While lower pressures like 5 PSI are useful for removing small amounts of matrix to expose details of fossils. Also it is a good idea to wait to expose details until the entire fossil is mostly exposed and only detail work remains. This is because the more a fossil is exposed and being worked on the higher chances are that details will be erased by the air abrasive moving over the fossil. Even in areas you are not directly working on. Please watch my video and learn more about it! Special thanks to the University of Utah for letting me use their lab, and a special thanks to the University of Utah Undergraduate Research Opportunity Program for helping too!

Hey guys! So I thought that I would start a new blog here. I have been looking for videos and other instructional material on line for how to prep / clean a fossil and have not found much. Google did not seem to be to helpful in this matter. I did find a few more things on this forum and they were very helpful. I learned what materials I needed and some techniques of how to clean fossils, but nothing like "Make sure to do this.....", "don't do this....". So I was able to gain access to my School's Palio and geoscience lab, and we put together a fossil prep lab. Now it may not be as fancy as a museum but it works!! And I am excited to work there! I may also be able to go to a nearby museum and be trained in how to do this as well. We will see. So I have some trilobites from the wheeler shale formation, in Dugway Utah, that I will be practicing on. The point of this is to get my skills high enough to be able to work on other fossils with out damaging them, for a research project I am involved in. In the video I show you what I do and talk about why and also talk about what I do wrong and how I fixed them. Please feel free to talk about this and to give advice. Here is a video of what I have been able to do so far. I started a youtube channel so that everyone can see what I am doing. So far I found that if i put a circled groove around the fossil, hopefully deep enough, that when I break the parallel layers of shale below the fossil that it will let the fossil be removed, with some matrix, from the rock. I will then later remove the excess rock off the fossil with an air abrasive / sandblasting machine. After I put the circled groove around my trilobite fossil I put my finger on it so that way it does not fly away when I use the air pen to pop it out. I had some success with this. I also found that keeping the PSI on the sand blasting machine around 5 PSI was necessary. Anything higher then that and I was damaging the fossils I found this out the hard way. I damaged two fossil because I did not check the PSI on the machine before I started. Fortunately they are ones that I own and not some one else. Best check that PSI next time!! Well enjoy my video! and remember please share this with others who are interested in getting started. And feel free to give any advice I would need for a beginner! Zach

Hi everyone, I need some advice on preparing fossils that are encased in very, very soft chalk. Thanks for any help, Christian

Can anyone give me suggestions as far as what to look for in a microscope for prep work? I have a 1950's Bausch and Lomb but the working distance is too short and I can't see how I can attach a Barlow lens to it as there are no threads on the bottom lens.

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Quick prep video of a nodule from the Upper Lias of the Whitby area I did the other week if anybody is interested.... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FMN1J6O-NEM&list=TL9fjxRxte4kno0x5ZseozgaSIbp8eJv0q If you happen to read this Jonny, note how thick the pyritic wall of the nodule is and that is why you need a TT when working on this sort of stuff especially if you are trying to remove it.

Hi everyone, I picked up a piece of silstone from Glen Affric beach in New Zealand (attached picture). This is a Miocene site and some of you may have seen some of the awesome crabs that come from this locality. The siltstone is hard and may be calcerous (need to test with some acid). It is also full of bones. Many large bones (some can be seen in the picture) and lots of smaller fragments. I'm pretty sure the larger bones are from a whale or dolphin. Not sure which parts yet. My question is: Should I prep this with a scribe or would acid be useful? I've never used acid prep before but I thought maybe it would be advantageous when working with rock that is full of bone. It might be easy to keep on hitting them with the scribe. Has anyone done any acid prep before? I'd love to hear any suggestions. Thanks!

I am relatively new to fossil hunting and most of my collection is from the coast of South Carolina. I do have some gorgeous fossils that we found last summer from the Douglas Pass area and the Florissant Quarry in Colorado. I finally had time to get them out of storage, organize and label them but am not sure if there is anything I should do as far as cleaning or preparing them so they don't deteriorate? These are a few of my favorites - the spider, flower and grasshopper(?) were magnified. Also, if anyone has specific thoughts on identifying any of them, I would love to hear what you think. Thanks in advance for any help!

I've been looking at air abrasives for a while now and recently found an air abrasive machine produced by Texas Airsonics - I was wondering if anyone has any experience using one and whether they'd recommend it? It's fairly costly but it would be very nice to own such a lovely piece of equipment. What are your guys opinions on it? http://www.texasairsonics.com/Cabinet%20Style.html The model that I am looking at is the pictured on the right hand side of the page. Kind regards, Joe