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bamontgomery

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Hi all.  I was recently in Crawfordsville, hunting along Sugar Creek.  While it's getting cold out, I've found that this is a great time to do it since the algae is gone and you can see what's under water!  I only spent about forty minutes out there, but still came back with a lot of mortality plates, small crinoid pieces, jaspers, blood stones, and some other interesting things I can't identify yet.

I found this piece here sticking out of a mud wall in Sugar Creek Nature Park (I made sure to see if collecting is allowed there--it is).  Only about an inch was sticking out, so I was shocked to see how big it ended being.  I'm still a newbie at this stuff, but know enough to not soak it in Iron Out.  Is there anything I can do to get the rust out without damaging it?

255003351_235705118662727_6022478738156361399_n.jpg

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Break off a small piece of one of the fossils from an inconspicuous spot and test it with some mild acid, like vinegar. If it is silicified the acid won't react with it. If that's what happens then you can soak it in a mild acid to remove the stain (unless it goes all the way through) and eat away some of the limestone to expose more of the crinoids and clean limestone off their surfaces.

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Mark.

 

Fossil hunting is easy -- they don't run away when you shoot at them!

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I sent a paleontologist friend of mine the same picture.  He thinks it might be manganese, and said that there's probably no way to remove it.  I'll give Mark's advice a try though.

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