I have something of a cephalopod hash plate from the Britton Formation in Collin County Texas that I am working on. I don’t have great tools and so I’m prepping this completely manually, by hand. It has a layer of pyrite that is pretty tough to work with by hand.
I am wondering, could I use Iron Out to soften or remove the pyrite without doing harm to the fossils or the cohesiveness of the plate? If so what would be the best way and dilution to use it at?
These are pics of the little plate.
I consider this the bottom. You can see the thin gray layer here and there. I’ve been slowly chipping away at it.
Maybe I could brush Iron Out just on the spots of pyrite.
This is the top. It has a bunch of little ceholopods on it. There is a mix of heteromorphs, baculites and ammonites along with some tiny, adorable gastropods.
This pic it is partly wet, but the pyrite is covered with a red mud on the left half and top half of the plate.
The bottom is a bit easier to work with since the cephalopods aren’t packed like sardines as they are on the top side. I can probably get rid of most of it on the bottom without too much damage, but the top is another matter.