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I am writing a short manual on preparation methods for our club and I am including a short section on chemical preparation. This is most commonly done with acids on carbonate rocks. For many newbies, chemical preparation is attractive since all you need is a weak acid that everyone has in their kitchen (vinegar or lemon juice) and don't have to buy expensive equipment. I try to avoid it if at all possible since it works on a very narrow class of matrices, you have relatively little control over it, you may dissolve the fossil itself if it hasn't been silicified and its irreversible. Consequently, I don't have much experience with it. I have tried brushing Muriatic Acid (concentrated HCl) on limestones and immersing them in weak acids like household vinegar with mixed results. I have a few questions: does acid preparation only work on carbonates (limestone CaCO3, dolomite CaMg(CO3)2 or siderite FeCO3) or are there other fossiliferous matrices that can be prepared using acid? Are there other legitimate ways to prep using acids other than brushing it on or immersing a fossil in a weak solution? I am aware of using organic solvents to prepare tar pit fossils, but this is something outside of most amateurs. Are there other chemical preparation methods other than organic solvents on tar pits or acids?

Hi, I am looking to buy a good MicroBlasting unit and need some expert advises. I know the prices of a good unit can go way over 5000$ and want some advises before spending that much. The main fossils I am working on are Trilobites and Echinoderms. Here is the 3 best units I have looked at so far: Crystal Mark: Swamblaster MV-2 Comco: Microblaster Comco: Accuflo Any Other Quality Micro Blasting Unit suggestion? Anyone out there using one of those unit and who can tell me how it goes? Thank you to all preparation experts for your time! Bobby

I have several fossils that have crystallized shells. I would like any advice on preparing the fossil without having the crystallized structure disintegrated. See example photo and the crystals structures around the edges of the spiral. Thanks. .

Hello, I have a bit of an odd piece, it's not a fossil, it's a scorpion! The scorpion was in its burrow in a dune when the dune collapsed, I would like to stabalize the sand, so that I can display it. This isn't a particularly important find, so I wouldn't mind if it broke in the process. Keep in mind, I have very limited materials.

Hello, I am an amateur fossil hunter whos level of knowledge is pretty limited. I love going out and hunting but my ability to identify and prep what I find is quite limited. I found this cephalopod fossil near Cincinnati Ohio a couple of years ago and it is by far my best find ever. I'm typically fine picking at or grinding away with a Dremel trying to prep my finds as they are usually small bits. Nothing I'm worried about ruining. This is something different and I'm pretty apprehensive about working on it. I read there isn't much harm in gluing it back together and I attempter this. It looks ok but 2 pieces didn't take so it's still in 2 pieces. There are also many very thin pieces of shell that came off the back when I dug it out. There also appears to be a small trilobite in the underside of the rock. What I would like to know is more information on the species it is, as well as if there is a person or place I can send it to get prepped. For identification purposes here is what I know. The area it was found in Cincinnati Ohio in a bed known for Cambrian era fossils. Estimated age is 450-500 million years. I am not a rich man so I cannot afford to spend too much on prep but it is the best fossil I've found so far. I would be willing to spend as much as my budget allows on getting it cleaned up and put back together. I do not know what to expect price wise so if anyone has a guestimate please let me know. Thanks ahead of time to anyone that can help me out.

Hello community, A friend of mine recently gifted me this keichousaurus. But as you can see the Preperation is not the cleanest/nicest. Can I as an amateur fix this by myself or make it look cleaner and nicer? I also had the Idea that I maybe could work from the other side with Acid layer by layer. Then I could also be able to see the upper side of the specimen rather than its belly. Or would that not work/ be to risky? Isbthe rock maybe to thin? Can i as an amateur who never worked on a fossil with acid before make that or is it generally not possible?

I know that a trilobite in limestone is found by breaking the rock, seeing its cross section in the pieces, and noting where it is. Then it is prepared by gluing the rocks back together and using jacks and air abrasion tools to remove the rock. My question: What sort of glue is used when gluing the rock back together? What set time does it have?

Hello everyone! I recently received this cool fossil from the Devonian in Scotland, it is a Palaeospondylus gunni: I have seen fossils of this enigmatic organism prepared in really wonderful ways to expose more of the animal and I was wondering: would this be possible to do here? I am not exactly sure of the process used on the others, possibly just really fine air abrasion? The fossil seems to be rather thin against the rock but it isn't completely flat, here are some pictures I took under the digital microscope, hopefully they might show it a bit better. Any help would be greatly appreciated, I am happy to provide more pictures if necessary. Thank you for your time!

Hello friends! I am experimenting this period with my new Haufwerk W224 air scribe. It is recommended as ideal for beginners and rated for medium to fine preparation. My first lab rat turned out above my expectation. First attempt was done without press. regulator and without filter, since I did not know I needed these. Lab rate Prior preparation and After. Soft limestone for your reference. After having finished the above and onwards I work with pressure regulator (never above 5bar~70psi) and water separating filter to ensure I am using dry air. The next one turned out really bad. One side was already exposed 100% due to weather erosion. The other side was fully covered except the edge. The beginning seemed promising. The first material was removed around 2 o'clock and started chipping away easily. After that I lost my path completely. I couldn't define what is material to remove and what is ammonite. The stone is quite hard limestone from the Jurassic of Bulgaria, Ammonitico Rosso. I believe that with air abrasion with hard material the result would be totally different, but I do not have yet this set up.

This could possibly be a random incoherent thought bubble, but here goes anyway. I was reading another thread which mentioned acid prep as the way to go for a particular item and then was proceeded by a bunch of professional preparators (that I repsect) being scared of the prospect of attempting it themselves. This really bothered me. I know I have a wealth of experience preparing far surpassing what a normal fossil aficionado would have, and I have always thought of acid as a tool in my bag and not something to be scared of. I am not a professional preparator, though I may be as close as one could be without being one. Absolutely it takes knowledge and safety and time. But it is no reason to scare our community away from it. Some of the best specimen have been prepared this way. There are two instances where I have used acid extensively. 1. Pennsylvanian stromatolites containing terrestrial vertebrate material. (Hamilton quarry in Kansas) 2. Brazilian fish nodules. Given exposure to other materials, that list might expand quite a bit but I generally stay in the lane of terrestrial vertebrates. My studies were generally only in that area. The setup is simple. 1. Make sure you are working in a ventilated area. You either need a lab hood or a private outdoor location (I do have the benefit of living in a sparsely populated area, my preference was to build a 'covered' workbench that holds several acid baths). 2. Protect yourself, wear gloves and a mask appropriate for your acid. I generally worked with 10% acetic. Note: Test, test, test, find practice pieces to get your exact acid strength and boundary agent defined. 3. The process is daily and repetitive. Don't do acid prep while you are traveling/not home. 4. Coat exposed fossil in acetone & polystyrene mixture or other appropriate material (you are creating a boundary between the fossil and the acid but not the matrix you want to remove). 5. Drop matrix in acid bath. 6. Remove matrix daily, wash and repeat 4 & 5. 7. Stop when you are happy. Please professionals, correct me where I am wrong. In my opinion, anyone who has done a chemistry 101 class should have the skills/knowledge to do acid prep. A few google searches should fill any holes that are lacking. Absolutely choosing the right acid for your particular piece takes some research, but it shouldn't be something we are scared to attempt. Absolutely safety should be first. Absolutely you should have practice pieces before attempting something major/important. I don't think we consider acid preparation enough, myself included, My default is mechanical removal followed by air abrasion. But when we have a case that screams acid prep, we should have the tools, knowledge, and expertise(and probably some technical forum thread) to deal with it. If we aren't using this forum to document our techniques and expertise for the next generation of preparators, what's the point? I learned from Orville Bonner at KU in the last few years of his working life, he may have trained 5 other people in his lifetime. How is that advancing our field? I think it is barely sustaining the practice. The knowledge will disappear if we do nothing. Currently, I work as an IT architect. My job is to listen to the needs of a project and find the appropriate solution. Fossils are no different. We all want the answer/solution first, this is the current society/culture: immediate gratification. We need to remember to listen to the needs of the specimen, have the wisdom to choose the right solution, and the knowledge to perform the proper technique. Please add your thoughts and experience. P.S. I may have inspired myself to 3D acid prep some Brazilian fish this summer.

I had an issue with my Paasche AECR remote canister where the flow of abrasive (bicarb) was very inconsistent. I had to shake the canister manually every minute or so, and the flow was much more abrasive right after I shook the van because more bicarb was floating in the air, decreasing abrasive ness until I would have to shake it again a minute later. This led to very inconsistent prep results. I decided I needed to take some sort of vibrating device and attach it to the canister containing the abrasive so that it would constantly shake bicarb into the air to be run through the air abrasive system. I settled on an old vibrating head scratcher. I removed the wiring from the device. I built a small wooden box to house it to dampen the vibrations so that the whole prep station would not vibrate, just the canister. I put a towel in the box to further dampen the vibrations. It worked like a charm! The system now runs with a consistent flow of abrasive when I turn the head scratcher on, and I never have to shake the canister manually. I cannot feel the vibrations from the device at all because the towel and box keep them contained. Below are photos of the whole process.

Hello all. Does anybody know the best way to preserve a 'Tully monster' specimen. I recall once reading that the surface often needs to be coated with a preservative against oxidizing, etc. One of my specimens has a tiny bit of red on the one eye, which I don't recall being there last year. Please see photos; advice deeply appreciated.

My latest completion. I like this one but still prefer the Mioplosus. I'm looking for a Priscacara next. Maybe Santa will bring me a fossil for Christmas!

I preface this by saying I'm not a crinoid collector, nor someone who has the foggiest idea of how to prep them effectively. If I encounter one that looks relatively complete, I'll bring it home. I focus prep on trilobites mostly, and there is a thread where I park those. It's been a busy week at the bench, and I thought I'd close it out with one finished piece, and one that is halfway done. First up is the finished piece. I didn't take a before photo for some reason, but these appear as faint traces in this material. This one is an Ectenocrinus. It already had some damage in the field up at the arms.

Hello, I have a large canine tooth (~14 cm with the root, ~6.5 cm with just the tooth) from the White River Formation that I collected this summer on privately held land in northeastern Colorado, and though the fossil in its natural state is fantastic as-is I’m thinking about doing a little bit of restoration on the fossil and am looking for some insights. The tooth itself is from either an entelodont or the rhino Metamynodon, with the shape of the tooth and root strongly suggesting the latter to me (feel free to speak out if you have an opinion one way or the other, though I’m not specifically asking for an ID in this thread). I found the tooth in several pieces and glued everything that I could find back together. I have most of the tooth, but only a small piece of the tip remains. Also, I have not glued the tooth back to its root, and instead simply display them together as if they were connected. I am thinking about restoring the rest of the tip by sculpting it in using paleosculp from Paleobond, using what piece of the tip there is as a guide. I am looking for any information anyone can give me on paleosculp and the process of restoring a fossil using this material. Would this be the correct product for the job? Is there anything I should know when working with the material? Is restoring the tip of this tooth even a good idea at all, or in the name of science should I leave it as I found it? I intend to leave the paleosculp unpainted for the purposes of not risking damage to the fossil and also making it obvious which pieces of the fossil are original (most of it) and which pieces are restoration (just a little section of the tip). I understand that dinosaur teeth are frequently restored in this way, but I want to make sure that I’m not committing blasphemy by doing such a restoration. Also, paleosculp is advertised as being sand-able and drill-able after it dries, and so I figure if the restoration ever needs to be removed for whatever reason it could be sanded away in a labor-intensive process, but do let me know if this is not the case. I also intend to clean the fossil up a bit more (ie get rid of some of the residual dirt still on it) and potentially glue the tooth onto the root. Thank you for any insights and information you may have! Picture of the fossil and of the tooth tip provided for context.

Hi guys! I am not sure if anyone has encountered such fossils before but when collecting fossils at the Salons Formation in PA this summer I found this brachiopod: This brachiopod is nicely inflated and has great detail, one problem is that the surface of it is covered in this layer of limestone with patches of calcite. I would love to get rid of it but I am really not sure how to go about doing so. Here is an extra picture of how it looks up close: Any help would be appreciated, Thank you!

Unlike the soft oil-shale, I've been preparing this Knightia from a much harder matrix. It's still oil-shale but doesn't seem to flake off as easily as the other. I love how I can see the specific bones and the scale is a bonus. Here is my question to the frum: The dental tool shown in the photo is what I've been using but it doesn't seem to be able to get that final bit of matrix off. It looks like it's covered in a thin layer of dust and I'm worried that if I scratch it off, I will lose much of the detail. How do I remove the final layer and get that dark brown carbon color that makes me proud to show off my work?!?

I was warned that this can get addictive. My current project is 2 Knightia in oil shale. I'll post updates but I'm going slow on this one.

Because I've seen it on other forums, I'm thinking that the moderators have been taxed recently with a huge influx of people joining the group. I apologize to them for adding to their work because I should have done this long ago instead of just visiting from time to time. My areas of interest in Paleontology are very diverse but focus on Paleoanthropology and the evolution of mammals in general, especially the epochs after the Cretaceous extinctions when the mammals began to enter the niches vacated by the dinosaurs and went through an incredible adaptive radiation, quickly evolving into new and larger forms. I also love doing field work and the many hours of prospecting that goes with it. When you enjoy the search and the discovery, the sweat and blood that comes with the excavation process is easy to survive. And finally, my real love comes with doing the work in the lab. Watching a specimen slowly being revealed when the jacket is cut away and the matrix is being removed, or seeing a delicate Green River specimen gradually being exposed using nothing more than an insect pin in a pin vise, the preparation, casting and mounting process with display as the end game. These are what I find the most challenging. My education is also diverse and relatively extensive. I have a diploma as a Biological Lab Technician plus diplomas in Museum Sciences (Cultural Resource Management), Visual Arts/ 3-D Design and Database Design. I have a Bachelor's Degree that's a Double Major in Physical Anthropology and Archaeology and a Master's Degree with specializations in both Vertebrate Paleontology and Geology. It goes without saying that I have a love of the Arts and Sciences. I've worked for a number of museums over the years creating docent programs, collections management policies and designing and building public and educational displays. According to somebody at the Smithsonian I appear to be the world expert on Cetacean skeletal anatomy because I've mounted more Whale skeletons than anybody else on the planet. That one makes me chuckle because although I've found numerous errors in the literature available on whale skeletons and articulated a half dozen skeletons...I don't study the beasts beyond having an appreciation for their fossil relatives. I started out as an amateur collector and grew up among the galleries at the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto. I have field experience in both Archaeology and Paleontology and was one of the first employees of the Tyrrell Museum (now the Royal Tyrrell Museum of Paleontology) and had the privilege of having worked on the museum's first field crew excavating a T-rex in the Crow's Nest Pass area of Alberta near the town of Lumbreck. That specimen later came to be called Black Beauty and toured the world as the star of a traveling exhibit. I worked for the Tyrrell from their inception year in 1982 and after their opening in September 1985, through to the end of the summer in 1986. I maintained my contact with the museum and a number of the original employees and still count them among some of my longest and dearest friendships. I also worked doing some preparation and lab work in the Vertebrate Paleontology lab at the University of Alberta. So that's my background. I don't know if people actually read these but I guess I'll see. I've been visiting this forum from time to time when I'm doing research on something or trying to identify one of the many specimens I have yet to catalogue into my collection. Paleontologists by nature are pickers and hoarders and can't help picking up and keeping a fossil or neat rock when they find one. I'm no different and over my 55 plus years of collecting I've accumulated a fairly large collection. My project for this winter is to translate all my written catalogues into a digital format. While I'm doing this I'm updating information about the changing taxonomic relationships and the changes in status and names of some of the formations, adding photographs and with the use of Goggle Earth fine tuning my location information. You gotta love that Google Earth...it's allowed me to find a few nice prospecting areas that I never knew existed. So, while I'm doing all this I'm hoping to find help with and some critical analysis in regards to some of my identifications. Thought it would be fun to share some of this knowledge I've accumulated and to learn from others. See you on the forum... Gary S.

I'm told the middle fish is a Knightia. Any ideas about what the other 2 are? Also, When I'm done preparing this, how can I darken the fossils and seal it up? It's in oil-shale. Thanks!

Hi everyone, I've been a bit of a skulker on these forums so I will make my introduction brief and get to the pretty photos. I moved to New Mexico about 2 years ago and have been fossil hunting and rock hounding ever since. I've found some pretty awesome stuff, but this past weekend I really had my first major find, what I believe to be Coilopercas inflatum (see attached pictures). I have managed to get this specimen out of its surrounding matrix very nicely, and I would like to keep it whole and attached to the matrix base that it is currently on (the ammonite is actually detached from the matrix currently, but sits nicely in the fossil impression and my plan is to re-secure using cyanoacrylate gel once I have prepped the actual ammonite). My question is how should I deal with the white crust that is obscuring the ammonite structure? It is fairly soft, so I am wondering if a dilute acetic acid will take it off without damaging the underlying fossil. Secondly, how would one go about polishing this ammonite, and what varnish is typically used to keep it shining and protected from UV? Thanks for your help everyone! Really want to prep this one right!

I dug this up in Wyoming and was told it's a Mioplosus. The soft sandstone came off with only a bit of effort. Now I'm on to a harder crystalized matrix around the most delicate areas. I don't want to lose any of the carbon so I'm asking for help. I've used dental tools and pen razors so far. I see amazing, beautifully completed fossils on this site with no sandstone on them at all. Is there a method or tool I am unaware of?

Hello everyone. I'm sorry to bother you. I have a few ammonites and ammonite impressions from a trip. I was wondering if you have any suggestions in how to clean them. I'm afraid of destroying them in the process. Thank you.

I got some trilobite fossils that i found many are possibly complete bodies but how do i prep them? How do i know where the body starts and ends? I kind of know where the body ends because of the size of the trilobites. But not really what way it goes in the rock. Up down the side? It also depends on the rock. Its not shale its limestone from kinnekulle. What really worries me are the rib things i Will use dental picks and small and other small sharp hand tools