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This partial ammonite whorl was a surface find from my April 8th trip to Cleveland, Utah. In particular, it was the one I found under the foot of the guy I was helping to lift his large Ammonite embedded in a heavy concretion to carry it to his van. I could discern that it was chocolate brown underneath the calcite coating. I stuck some thick felt furniture leg pads on the back of it to keep from scratching my office desktop. Well a week later I decided to remove the coating. Here's the "as found" pic. And with safety equipment including a gas filter mask, gloves, glasses, big bowl of water, a fan and open garage door, I was ready to go at it. The chemical is muriatic acid for cleaning brickwork and swimming pool masonry. I used a toothbrush to dip into a small cup of acid next to the bowl of water. Dip, scrub, rinse repeat until I liked the results. First round on this section. Looks good. Second round. Keep going! I'm liking it so far. Round three finishes that step. Then I soaked it in a bowl of water and baking soda. Several rinse cycles, a good dry time and a coat of Paraloid after that. Then the felt pads were reattached. And I like it a lot more than before. It may only be a partial whorl of an ammonite but to me it's a lot more than that. Kinda like finding a toe claw of a raptor or a big carnivore tooth. It may not be the whole enchilada...but it's enough to think about the potential of what it was complete or once was alive.
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I have been prepping for nearly 7 years and work on private contracts. I used to work in a museum where they have been using the same methods since mid-2000s so I was taught to prepare using the techniques and tools that they taught me with (and developed my own skills for micro-preparation), namely just using a pneumatic scribe (ME-9100, CP9361, MJ) and a microscope. I've been curious about chemical prep, and was wondering if someone could explain to a complete newbie some of the ins and outs of the method? Or direct me to any forum threads/good websites that explain it. I want to broaden my abilities and also find out if there are any modern developments, besides just buying a new scribe, to preparation as a whole (not just mechanical). I've also never tried sandblasting but wasn't sure if that would be useful. Basically I want to know when it's appropriate to use chemicals, pneumatic tools and sandblasting. Any insights from fellow preppers would be appreciated! Just for a bit more information I primarily work on mammal-like reptiles (therapsids) from the Permian-Triassic boundary from the Karoo area in South Africa. Disclaimer: I must admit I haven't had the chance to search the forum extensively for this information so I'm sure there must be info I just haven't found it yet
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- advice
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Here's a nice, large brachiopod I found at Paulding, OH, yesterday. The Silica Shale is rich in organics and lends itself well to dissolution with KOH, a strong base. Here is the "before" pic after cleaning the fossil with a brass brush. The remaining matrix is rock, not "dirt" and would take quite a bit of time to remove with a pin vice and air abrasion.
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