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Well, today my Zoic tips arrive so i decide to continue the preparation of this Ammonite. Its not finished yet but im really happy with the resultas. the rock pop quickly and easily. The inner whorls are preserved, that's the best thing for me. Its my very first real preparation project, so im very excited of the next one. Any tips to keep going with this specimen, general tips or commentary will be well recived

A few weeks ago, I ordered a Velociraptor and a Microraptor from ZOIC Palaeotech in the UK. I requested that the scribes be modified to use an exhaust diffuser in order to reduce air flow onto delicate specimens. The company is great to work with and readily answered all my questions. The time from order placement to receipt of delivery was only a week to the day! They arrived well packed in the shipping box and in a nice wooden box. When I placed the order I forgot to select US industrial for the air connector and assumed I would have to swap it out… Nope, they anticipated my need and built the tools with the correct adapter. The Velociraptor comes with an air regulator and the Microraptor uses the same hose, so swapping the tool to reduce air pressure is simple. They are pressure plate scribes (like the Aro) so, they need a bit more pressure to run than other scribes but will operate with as little as 40 psi. The maximum pressure they should run on is 60 psi. This gives a lot of variation in force for delicate specimens. The velociraptor has about as much power as one of the larger Micro Jacks and can be turned down to around the power of an MJ3. The Microraptor is significantly lighter. Running at 40 psi, I’m able to ease right up against the specimen to remove small bits of matrix. They aren’t entry model scribes and come with a price tag but they are significantly less expensive that some other comparable scribes. All in, they are great tools and well worth the investment.

Hello everyone, I am relatively new to fossil preparation and up until last week have been using an electric engraver to prep some of my collection, but it overheated and died on me so I am looking into upgrading to a proper air scribe. I was hoping some of you who work with UK tools might be able/willing to give me some advice on picking a tool. I have heard very good things about both Zoic pens and the Ken Mannion TT but I'm curious to know what the difference between them is from a use standpoint since one uses pusher plate internals and the other a piston (I think). A little background into the sort of thing that's in my collection that I'd like to prep. Most of my collection comes from the Whitby area, so hard pyritised ammonite nodules (the photo is a D. commune I was working on when the engraver died). I also have Rhaetian bone material from Aust and some small concretions, probably C. clalamensis from the last time I was back in Washington. I will post a few pictures of the ones I'm looking to work on next below as comments. Any and all advice you can give me is greatly appreciate. I'm looking forward to getting some things shelf ready while I can't go out and hunt for more. Thank you, Benton Walters