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I got this egg for free from the chap I get my China fossils from. Not the best shape, but for free, who is complaining? Now, is there any way to spruce it up a bit? Clean it etc so it looks nicer without further damaging it? Thanka

I'd gotten an Edmontosaurus caudal vertebra from @Troodon and had decided to prepare it a bit. I had used water to soften the matrix and a metal pick. Here are the before and after pictures. Before And after Also, does anyone have any tips on how to prepare hell creek fm fossils because I just wet the matrix and basically scooped it out.

Hey everyone. With my quest for ammonites I need to see if there is a recommended good Electric scrib. Pneumatic I can find a few but compressors are going to keep the misses up. We all know that is not good. Just found 3 new species for my collection but they are invedded in concrete. Well you know what I mean.

It's Fossil Friday, so I have another fossil video ready. This is a prep of the Edmontosaurus neural arch I recovered in the video posted last week. A little background: Edmontosaurus Annectins, 66 millions years old (Maastrichtian) of the Hell Creek formation, Butte county, South Dakota. Recovered while digging with Paleo Adventures

I have this Greenops that I found at Penn Dixie and I was wondering if it would be worth it to prep it more or leave it as it is. It looks like it’s possible the cephalon is still encased in rock since it looks like the genal spines may be barely present (see red circles). I only have small hand tools (dental picks, pin vise) to do the prep work.

Hello, I heard you can use "all purpose glue" that's apparently used in schools, mixed with acetone to make a cheap consolidant. I need a lot of the stuff for a pretty "far gone" fossil. I think I managed to find something, but I am still unsure whether or not I could use it (if it's the right type of glue). (What I need) (What I found)

I recently started a new YouTube channel exclusively for hosting my fossil hunting and prepping content. A lot of people who are new to fossil prep are curious about how other people set up their work areas and what tools to use, so I made my first video to discuss at this topic.

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.

Hi, I'm the parent of a fossil-mad son who is always looking to learn more about paleontology. Our (his) interests tend toward fossil prep, collecting and field work. I'm currently hoping to find sources for un-prepped fossils to keep him busy! Looking forward to learning more!

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:

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.

Sometime ago, I acquired an ichthyosaur skull that was poorly prepped. It had been roughly grinded and had lost much of its surface details. This is unlike the Holzmaden-style ichthyosaurs that were professionally prepped from the beginning, resulting in a beautiful fossil with scleral eye rings and full teeth etc. It's the reason collectors get unprepped Keichousaurus and send them to professional preppers, with the resultant Keichousaurus being more detailed than the ones you see from the Chinese market. This guy here is as flat as a pancake and so it would take delicate work to remove the hard matrix without damaging what bones still remain. Thankfully, @steelhead9 was up to the task of prepping him further. There is no restoration here. I'd say he has done one heck of a job.

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?

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.

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!

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.

Here’s another phytosaur I’m starting work on. This one is missing some pieces and we are hopeful the collector can find more this spring. Until then, I have some work cut out for me. It may not look like much now but there appears to be a fully inflated skull under all that sandstone! I’ve already found where some of the random pieces in the trays did and have begun gluing and consolidating. I can see the occipital poking out of the back of the block as well! Finally, a phytosaur that is more prep than puzzle. There are fresh breaks on the maxillae where more should fit. for those bits showing up in a few months.

I had a bit of spare time today so I thought I'd prep a trilobite or two from my trip around the Confusion and House Ranges of Utah. (See trip report here) I had found this guy in someone else's throwaway pile probably after it came out chipped and subsequently scraped. I didn't think it was worth leaving out in the elements so I brought it home. Here's a before picture. After 4 hours of swapping between dental picks, wire brushes, toothpicks, and various Dremel attachments here is my final product. It's not perfect at all but I think it deserves to be admired for a time because it has not been on this earth for over 490 million years just to be chucked aside when it finally reached the surface. I even gave it a polish using a piece of newspaper. I don't think it came out too badly. The scrape is still visible on the thoracic segments but there's not much more I can do for that. What do you guys think?

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…

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)

Now that hockey season has ended and the lab is warm again, and perhaps due to my new found extra time in isolation, I am embarking on documenting my prep projects. I thought I would start the prep season off with something easy that should turn out fairly nice. Please welcome my new little friendly Oreodont, Miniochoerus gracilis. It came into my collection in the summer of 2013 and has sat jacketed in a box until today. This evening I concentrated primarily on consolidation and bulk matrix removal with an ARO, and still have a ways to go. The plan is to prepare the "down" side in the hopes of a beautiful orbit and zygomatic arch. I did notice a cross section of vertebrae on the rear of the block so there is probably some neck attached as well. I'm hoping there is enough matrix below the jaws to make a nice pedestal to sit on as well.

Forum member Ray Eklund recently offered several pieces of White River mammal material at auction to benefit the Forum. I was pleased to win one of these and received it a little over two weeks ago. I now hope to post a series attempting to show the progress in preparation. This fossil is the skull and lower jaw of Merycoidodon gracilis. This is one of the smaller Oreodonts, about the size of a modern red fox. Ray provided the following collection information: Brule Member of the White River Formation, Sioux County, Nebraska. Here are photos provided by Ray, posted for the auction. The remainder of the photos in this series were shot with a Nikon D600 with a 50mm, 1.8 lens mounted. These photos were processed in Photoshop Elements 11 and are greatly reduced in size/resolution for posting.

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.

I threw together a guide to manual prep tools for one of my students who is interested in trying her hand at some peck and scratch work on fossils. Figure I'd share a version of it with yinze. (mildly edited to comply with forum regs) Manual Prep Tools- Earth Sciences Basic "starter tools" You probably have some stuff around your home already that will work for basic prep- large sewing needles, various nails and screws, and even old drill bits. Basically, if it is sharp and pointy, you can probably remove some rock! Hardened nails, like blued finish nails and masonry nails can be fashioned into finer points with a bit of grinder work. See also: Pin Vise (below) Another option is hobby knives, like an Exacto as there are tones of different disposable blades and hooks and such for them. Personally, I rarely use them for fossils as I tend to break off the fine points and need my blades for my models and such, however, if you got 'em, try 'em! Automotive gasket picks/o-ring picks Pros: Cheap and easy to get- any auction site or automotive parts store has them. ranges from cheap to moderately expensive. Available with thin, pencil like grips and heavy screwdriver like grips Cons: You get what you pay for, the cheap ones tend to be softer steel and prone to bending and breaking. Be ready to re-sharpen tips regularly. Lousy for hard matrix and may leave marks that rust later on. Dental Tools: Pros: Fairly easy to get consumer grade versions online. Range from cheap to pricey. Extremely fine points, but way require occasional sharpening. Cheaper ones tend to bend easily on rock. Cons: Real medical grade stainless steel dental picks (the best ones) may be illegal in some places as they are medical equipment and not intended for consumers. The best ones can cost a lot. Also very sharp and easy to stab yourself with... Dissection Probes (stainless steel) Pros: Affordable and relatively easy to buy online. Heavy stainless steel versions cost more, but have a variety of tip types you cannot get elsewhere that are very useful. Easy to resharpen and maintain. The blunt probes can easily be ground into chisel tips and quad points. Awesome for soft matrix. The spear point type are so useful! Cons: The cheapest ones are no better than gasket picks and are soft and prone to bending. Also, very sharp and easy to stab yourself with... Industrial tungsten carbide (tool steel) scribes Pros: A personal favorite for hard matrix and fine detail work. CHEAP. Large variety of styles from a pointy stick, to a retractable pen. Tips can be replaced and are cheap. Cons: Do not strike these with a tapper or hammer- the tip will shatter. Chisels: Pros: Excellent for removing big chunks. Good for small stuff too if you know what you are doing. Great for the field and the bench. Best ones are acquired through art supply stores. Cons: Buy carbide tipped chisels designed for stonework...many cold chisels are designed only for use on mild steel or masonry and are virtually useless for stone due to softer steel used. Heavy and you gonna need a variety of hammers. Also...expensive....but you get what you pay for. Specialty Chisels: There are special tool steel thin chisels designed for splitting shale. If you are a splitter and don't have a few of these, you are doin' it wrong! Pros: Specifically designed for splitting fossiliferous shale. Cons: Can be hard to source. Side note: You can make your own if you have access to a grinder and some "blue" spring steel. General Purpose Hammers: DO NOT USE A CLAW HAMMER. I say again, DO NOT USE A CLAW HAMMER. They are not designed or made to withstand meta on metal impact (like a chisel head). There are tonnes of brands and types, but a good quality ball peen and a few mini sledges will treat you right. Personally, I prefer the "deadblow" style, but wood handle and all steel are good too as you can get really small weights. Mallets: Trust me, having a mallet is really handy. Deadblows are my preferred (pictured above), but I also use a sculptors mallet...which once you learn how to use, will likely be the only hammer you ever use during prep. Don't laugh, but if you need to really wail on something, a bowling pin is awesome. Paint Brushes/chip brushes/wire brushes: Artist paint brushes are useful for all sorts of things, from removing dust to picking up small bits. I use a mix of synthetic and natural bristles Chip brushes are super cheap to the point of being disposable, but don't last very long if used wet. Also, 100% recyclable. a clay sculpting "feather" brush Pin Vise: This is a handy little item for holding, well, pins. For your purposes this can be regular sewing needles, large gauge needles, sharpened nails, etc. DO NOT over tighten the chuck. It will jam and ruin your tool. An Exacto type knife handle can double as a pin vise by changing out the chuck jaws with rotary (dremel) tool chuck jaws. Pros: Inexpensive and Easy to get most anywhere. However as with most tools, you get what you pay for. Often sold with tiny drill bits which are handy for lots of things. Cons: Thou shalt not over tighten thine chuck! Cheaper models have soft aluminum or brass ferrules which can be prone to breakage and thread stripping if over tightened. cheap version expensive version...designed for fine scale modelers...notice the chuck and ferrule are steel and nickle plate, rather than aluminum. Scratch Brushes also known as Wire Brushes including sculpture brushes: Cheap, easy to get, various types available anywhere! You will find lots of uses for these. (Also, old tooth brushes are handy...the kind without the rubber stuff in the bristles!) Pros: Many! Cons: Be careful! Brushes with steel bristles can rust and stain your specimen---stainless steel, aluminum, brass, and nylon are safer if you have humidity around! So, there is a brief overview of basic hand prep tools. Field tools and powered tools are an entirely different subject discussed well in other threads.

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