Newbie gets an air tool

[AK hiker]

The Paliotool ME-9100 arrived today and had the 1 1/2 engraver scribe on it. A quick change of connectors, a hose connected to my clean air source in the shop's paint booth and down to the pailoipaver part of the garden to get a couple of practice victims, I mean specimens.

 

 

I won't talk about the first two except that they were pretty heavily fractured before I started in on them. Just know that they gave their best in the name of science and may they rest in peace.

 

 

 

I picked a more robust one and stared in to clean up the center with better results although I don't think there should be a hole in the center. 

From this initial try found I will need better light and a support for the tool as it get to be tiresome after a session especially since I also worked today. Also magnification as I learn what detail to watch for. This one was happily returned to the paloipaver collection in the garden to live another day!

[Ludwigia]

Yay! Now it's getting serious. If I had that last one, I would put it on display or at least add it to the collection, despite the hole in the middle.

[Pemphix]

3 hours ago, Ludwigia said:

Yay! Now it's getting serious. If I had that last one, I would put it on display or at least add it to the collection, despite the hole in the middle.

Yup, agreed - now i'm curious of what the good ones in the collection looks like !

[RJB]

9 hours ago, AK hiker said:

From this initial try found I will need better light and a support for the tool as it get to be tiresome after a session

With lots of time put in for prepping your hand will get used to it and you will be able to prep 10 hours a day!   Goooooooooooo AK gooooooooooooo

 

RB

[smt126]

I wish I had that kind of "landscape rock" in my yard

[AK hiker]

 

To answer what some of the nice ones look like. Currently there are less in the living room now but hope to convince my wife with the ammonites cleaned up to return them to the living room. I am looking forward to preparing and identifying them. I feel fortunate to live in such a great place and have access to the inaccessible areas where few have been. As my prepping skill gets refined will tackle these and get them properly displayed. Thanks for the encouragement!

 

 

 

[hadrosauridae]

Congrats on your new tool and successes! Prepping is addictive!  Just remember not to try to force the tool, let it work.  Some matrix or some spots of matrix will be tougher and takes a little more time.  Keep in mind that the impacts / vibrations are also being transfered into the fossil, so if you push the tool harder, its more into the fossil as well.  

[AK hiker]

I had my air compressor working while painting in the shop this weekend so while between coats  started in on two ammonites. Hard to see in the lower right picture but I am below where I think the rest of the center portion should be and was wondering if it is common for the center to be missing? This was what I found on the first one I worked on and ended up with a hole through the center of that one. Any advice is most welcome. I have stopped at this point to contemplate what to do next.

Thanks;

Bob

[AK hiker]

Still in the matrix on this side

This ammonite has a fracture through the center which I think is pretty cool showing how tectonically active the area is. The Castle Mountain fault runs 5 miles north of my home and along the south edge of the Talkeetna Mountains. The center is definitely broken in this one with bits of it evident in the matrix as I have been removing it. This is addictive!  

[grandpa]

16 minutes ago, AK hiker said:

was wondering if it is common for the center to be missing

That seems to be quite common with the Cretaceous ammonites I find in Texas.

[Ptychodus04]

15 hours ago, AK hiker said:

I think the rest of the center portion should be and was wondering if it is common for the center to be missing? This was what I found on the first one I worked on and ended up with a hole through the center of that one. Any advice is most welcome. I have stopped at this point to contemplate what to do next.

It is not uncommon for the center if the umbilicus to be missing. It is a delicate part of the shell, so it tends to crush easily. If I get to the point that I can tell it is gone, I simply smooth out the tool marks and try to disguise it so it's not so obvious.