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Showing results for tags 'prep'.
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Simple question here: I've bought some fossil fish from the Eocene of the USA. Some of them are a bit dusty, and I wondered if I can use water to gently clean them.
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So I'm prepping this crab I got from Indonesia but the bottom is looking a little weird one part of it looks like a piece is flipped over is that possible? Also it's very very fragile.
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I recieved this skull yesterday and have been working on it whenever I have time. The skull is not super complete, but I still like it. Here are the images from the seller:
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- leptauchenia decora
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I recently found a bunch of eocene urchins near Jebel Hafeet in Al Ain, United Arab Emirates. Most of them are a peculiar orange colour. The trouble comes when trying to expose the hidden parts of the urchin. When I remove the matrix, I don't see the orange color anymore. There's a grey layer that covers the fossil, which looks exactly like the fossil, but it's on top of the fossil. The matrix pops off of this layer. I don't know how to prepare this. Many of the urchins are only about as thick as a folded piece of paper, so I don't want to mess around too much with vinegar. Any tips?
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I've had little free time as of late, but I've made good use of some of it by starting to learn how to prepare my fossils. Here's a find I made recently that I finished tonight. It's taken a little longer than i expected, but that's because I would live stream some the prep on TikTok, where I'd prep (with one hand, risky business!) while also answering some questions about fossils and how to get started hunting, etc. This made it slow but enjoyable work. These come from my current best site that I have. The teeth are small, but perfectly preserved, since they come straight out of the ground. I made do with what I have, using a screwdriver pick I found in the garage that must've come with a screwdriver kit. It works just fine. I also found that a good playlist makes prepping even more appealing. Lately I've been getting into Colter Wall and Tyler Childers, and they've made a great vibe during my preps. First - the slab of two Ptychodus teeth, as found (sorry for the quality, it comes from a video) and here it is tonight! Next here's another tooth that I decided to break out of the paper thin slab that held it. This is my largest Ptychodus tooth from this site so far - I suspect it's a Ptychodus mammilaris, and it's slightly larger than the two above.
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- central texas
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Hi all! I’ve got this heavily weathered Ceraurus, and I’m trying to figure out if it’s best to leave the critter in the rugged natural state or if more of him might be buried: any pointers on determining this? Trying to think twice and dremel once to avoid mistakes… Thanks!
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Hi all! Thought I would start documenting my trilobite preps. Here is #1, a Calymene breviceps from the Waldron shale, Indiana, and my first real prep. This is about 15 hours using hand tools primarily and a dremel for clearing some of the original matrix. My fingertips are sore, but lots of fun was had! Very exciting to see this feller reemerge after 400,000,000 years! Now to track down some other unprepared trilobites…. Trickier part of the operation…
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What a difference prep can make! I was recently sent a picture from back home of my first trilobite fossil, received as a childhood gift. This picture really drove home for me how much detail can be lost in prep, and how being able to really look into a pair of 400,000,000 year old eyes is such an incredible experience. It’s kind of a bummer to think of how many lovely critters get scraped away for the sake of quick sale- much admiration for fossil preppers. I like to think that this one was a beginner’s first shot, and that they have gone in to liberate many more bugs from the limestone with dignity and grace. Pic: what I thought Crotacephalina looked like vs what it does…
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Looking to buy a stereo microscope to use with an air scribe and air eraser (in a blast cabinet) on echinoids and ammonites. This one seems very reasonably priced, but I have no idea what to look for in terms of quality. Will the image be blurry? Will I not be able to find any parts for this? https://www.vevor.com/collections/stereo-microscope/products/vevor-binocular-stereo-microscope-zoom-microscope-7x-45x-dual-arm-boom-with-led (price is about $250) If needed, I'll go ahead and buy an AMScope (dual boom, trinocular, and light ring) which comes to $576.94 on their site (seems to be the same price as online for the same model)
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So I am thinking about getting an unprepared oreodont skull. But I was wondering how hard it is to prepare one and if I should buy something less expensive to work on? Thanks in advance! Ps. I have a little bitt of experience with preparing fossils.
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I have started prepping Green River fish for one of the quarries in Kemmerer and one of their requirements was that I switch to using iron powder for my abrasive. It's expensive but I wish I had done this years ago! It took a fair bit of cleaning to get the baking soda out of my dust collection system (you don't really want them mixing together). Iron powder is slightly harder than soda but is more rounded. It removes the matrix really quickly with less damage to the specimen. I can operate at significantly lower pressures as well. The softer bits of matrix come off easily at 8 psi. Another aspect of the iron powder is that it is easily recoverable with a magnet in a bag. about 50% drops in the box. I pick it up with the magnet, sift it through a 100 micron sieve and dump it back into the abrasive hopper. My dust collector dumps into a bucket to collect the heavy/large particles on the way to the fines bag. This grabs about 90% of the abrasive that gets picked up by the suction. I have another magnet in the bucket that gathers most of the iron and every 4 or 5 hours of work time, I open the bucket and recover the abrasive. This gets sifted and goes back into service.
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So this is the first prep I've attempted with my new Dremel (with specialised tips for fossils/rocks). The ammonite is from Saltwick Bay in Yorkshire. I chose this as my first practice piece as I thought that it was going to be pretty bashed up inside so would be a good one to say 'oh well' if/when I make mistakes. Sadly I now think it could have been quite nice had I saved it for when I have more experience! Anyway, to my inexperienced touch the matrix felt very sticky, with practically none of the matrix popping off nicely. I felt like I was having to carve out the ammonite and there are several spots where you can see I got it wrong and really messed up. My question is, do you think I should go any further? I think the centre may just be present and there are still bits of matrix clinging to some of the ribs but I don't want to do anymore damage and it's too hard to get off with a pin vice (I tried). If you have any advice on prepping matrix like this and any good techniques particularly with ammonites I would really appreciate it. As found In progress... Where I've got to now... Close up of the centre (taken with phone camera through x10 loupe) Forgot to add, this is actually a double with another ammonite on the back
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Hello All, I came across this fossil at a local rock and gem store and I'm having a go at preparing it. Apparently it is from Indonesia and I believe is a Thalassina, although with the spindle like legs I haven't seen anything that looks like an exact match. Here's my question; the fossil is covered with a sticky coarse sandstone, and I'm wondering how much of the matrix I should leave between joints in the tail and between the legs on the main body. I'm not sure if removing too much matrix will just cause the fossil to fall apart, but I suspect it might. Has anyone had experience with these fossils before and be able to lend a rookie some advice? Cheers, Ryan
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Ill be working on a pretty big fossil and wanted to know any differences between paraloid b - 72 and paleo bond stabilizer . I've used paranoid on a few things but have no experience with paleobond stabilizer. Are they used the same ? Does paleo bond need any mixing ?
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Prepping some White River Fossils - Guidance and advice needed!
Opabinia Blues posted a topic in Fossil Preparation
I have a few really nice fossils from the White River Formation of northeastern Colorado that I need to prep, and given I am a beginner at fossil prep I would really like to gain some advice and guidance from people with experience do I don’t accidentally damage the fossils. The first fossil is an Oreodont skull. The skull is mostly intact, and I was able to extract it from the field without using any glue or stabilizer or consolidant or anything like that, so this fossil is in its “natural state.” The zygomatic arch and upper tooth row are crumbling, but otherwise everything else that I can see is there appears to be stable. The other side of the skull appears to be still mostly encased in matrix, and is likely to be better preserved. What’s everyone’s opinion on whether or not I should apply penetrant stabilizer directly to the bone before prepping to help keep it intact? The second fossil is a jaw bone, tentatively identified by me as Subhyracodon but I will need to reveal the teeth to know for sure. There are several large cracks throughout the bone (as can be seen) but the entire bone is still in one piece due to application of PaleoBond penetrant stabilizer in the field. There is matrix in between the larger cracks, I imagine I will have to pull it apart one piece at a time, clean the pieces, and then glue them back together. I don’t have any specific questions at this point other than about the overall process. It would be great if those with experience could briefly go over how they would go about prepping these fossils would be great. Is there anything I should avoid, be careful of, or watch out for? Equipment I have includes an air scribe with compressor, dental picks/tools, and the full suite of PaleoBond glues and stabilizers, including the debonding solvent. Thanks in advance! *These fossils were collected legally on privately held land in Weld County, Colorado, with full landowner knowledge and permission.
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Hello Fossil Forum, Thank you all for the fantastic information I've already been able to find on prep tools and overall prep lab requirements. I'm in the investigation phase right now and am poised to purchase my first air scribes as an upgrade to the electric engraver I've been using so far. My question is this; for any of the Canadian experts out there, do you have any suggestions on where to look for tools and supplies that can be delivered easily within Canada? There are a lot of great retailers out there, but they all seem to be located in the USA or UK, are there any Canadian options/resources I might be missing out on? Cheers, Ryan
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I took a break from working in contract preps last night and spent an hour with the Super Jack attacking the crab that I got from @Doctor Mud. This far, the crab doesn’t appear to be sticky or covered in calcite.
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Hi all, I was wondering if anyone could give me advice on 1. air scribes you’ve found are good for fossil prep, and 2. All the parts needed for Scribes. I’m not quite sure all the parts needed for a scribe, I know you need the scribe itself and an air compressor, but I don’t know beyond that. P.s; the fossils I’ll be working on will be Green River fish, for the most part.
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Its fossil Friday! Share your latest fossil picts.
hadrosauridae posted a topic in General Fossil Discussion
Its fossil Friday, so share a pic of your latest fossil acquisition, or prep. This is my latest prep project, a large Mioplosus from the Green River fm of Wyoming. Its not 100% finished but getting very close. Sadly it had already lost 1/2 to 2/3 of the tail before I found it, it has some damage to the rear dorsal fin, and the original break/exposure was through the head so it will take extra work to remove the glue used for an improvised field repair. I did learn a good lesson and will be bring proper consolidates and glues when I go fishing this year.
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I split this trilo from a rock, Some shell got stuck on the negative. How do I fix this? Is the Trilobite destroyed? Should I glue the Trilobite back on the rock? How do i get the shell back on the trilo? Is it normal that shell can come off Trilobites? Trilobite head Negatives with shell stuck
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Fish aren’t the only things I can prep (although recent posts may appear that way). I just wrapped up these trilobites for a fellow TFF member. All in, they took 5.5 hours. The larger one required significant consolidation as it was horribly cracked.
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I am not great at fossil prepping but I thought I might keep you guys updated on how my prep is going. This one is a challenge, the matrix is so hard it broke the tip off of my xacto knife. I have been working on this for 6-7 hours.
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So i prep with hand tools. Mostly chalk and limestone. But i am worried about the dust coming off the rocks. I spray the rocks with water so dust wont come up. But im not sure if that works. Do i need a mask?
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Prepping trilobites but not being able to use air tools
Jurassicz1 posted a topic in Fossil Preparation
So i got alot of trilobites that i would like to prep. But i only have a dremel and hand tools. But i dont think a dremel would be good for trilobites. Most of them are in limestone from sweden. Mostly kinnekulle. Im scared of doing damage to the trilobites with hand tools. As i cant get air tools. I have sharp nail vises and a exacto knife and a optivisor. Also the matrix can sometimes be soft and easy to prep and sometimes it can be super hard -
I have a questions on how to properly prep Fish fossils. I collected the attached fish from the green river formation near Kimmerer WY a few years ago. I have not done anything to the sample, I collected it, returned home and displayed it. How does one properly look for other fish in the matrix? I can see very small parts of other fish in the sample, but do not want to do anything to the sample until I get a better understanding on how to prep fish fossils. Thanks for the help
