Komp’s Fossil Preps

[KompsFossilsNMinerals]

Hi all, my good friend @Nautiloidand I have been doing some collecting at a site in the Trenton Group recently and we have been finding what we believe to be Gravicalymene magnotuberculata.  The matrix is soft and quite easy to prep, which was a nice surprise.  This one was found by my father @Penguin Fiasco
 

Here it was before preparation

 

 

Bonus headless Triarthrus Beckie appears!

 

All done, now time to clean off the abrasive powder!

 

 

Here it is after preparation, I am pretty happy with the result.  Please excuse the Dolomite on my fingers, I took the plate outside to photograph as soon as I finished prep.

 

 

Closeup of the Triarthrus beckii body
 

For my first time prepping this material I don’t think I did too bad!  There are of course some spots that could use more preps but I really worry about going too far and accidentally burning the shell, so I figure I’ll quit while I’m ahead on this piece.  

[KompsFossilsNMinerals]

Here is what I believe to be Flexicalymene (senaria?) which I found at the site.  Unfortunately a majority of the shell exploded when I cracked the plate open and I couldn’t find the pieces or the negative.

Photo taken moments after I found it (I ended up losing the small chunk of shell because I didn’t have any tin foil to wrap it and the specimen in)

 

Post-prep, I think it came out pretty nice!  Super unfortunate that the shell broke off but still a really nice bug.  

Edited November 12, 2022 by KompsFossilsNMinerals
Image didn’t work, fixed it

[KompsFossilsNMinerals]

This is probably one of my favorite finds from the site so far,  my first ever complete Triarthrus beckii!  In the roughly two years I have been collecting in NY, I have been on the hunt for this elusive trilobite at a couple spots, each with little to no luck.  I have gotten close with partials missing bits and pieces but never a completely intact Triarthrus.  However, last week, that changed when I uncovered this complete.

 

Before prep… When I uncovered it, @Nautiloid and I knew it was gonna be an amazing bug once prepped, and we were right!

 

The inflation on the bugs from this site is incredible!!  Other sites I have been to where these occur are always flattened.  Like the Gravicalymene, this bug could use more prep but I’m honestly scared to try and do any more on it.  

[A.C.]

Great preps! All of those turned out really well! 

[KompsFossilsNMinerals]

34 minutes ago, A.C. said:

Great preps! All of those turned out really well! 

Thanks!  

[Wrangellian]

I agree with A.C., quite the transformation. Very nice!

I know what it's like to lose bits of shell... or to try and fit them back in place when I haven't lost them, but the worst thing is finding a complete fossil (of whatever kind of critter) and hammering away to free it, and then suddenly a piece falls off, and you spend an hour trying to find it in the debris, to no avail.

[RJB]

  I believe most fossil hunter/preppers have all lost a piece or two in their endevers.  Not sure how to spell that.  always nice to get a fossil youve been looking for too.  Lots of nice pictures.

 

RB

[jpc]

Nice work.  If you ever need to know, i have found that the best way to clean dolomite powder off your fossil is to empty the sandblaster and blow the specimen clean with pure air.

[KompsFossilsNMinerals]

So last night I decided to take apart my Vaniman Mobile Problast system to try and diagnose the low pressure/flow issue I’ve been having (and which has sort of discouraged me from prepping over the past couple months).  I found what I believe to be the issue after doing soapy bubble checks on different parts of the setup, and found that the collet controlling the airline tubing going into the setup’s abrasive tank was leaking air.  I removed the tubing and re-cut it at a lower section, put it back in the collet, and now I have pretty great flow out of the abrasive pen.  I did some practice on this Elrathia to make sure it would work on a longer duration and the flow is amazing.  I’m thinking that I didn’t notice the sound of air leaking because of my vacuum and hearing protection blocking it out.

 

I had to glue the bug back onto the matrix because scribing shook it loose.  More work will be done on this bug, but for now I’m happy with it.  

Edited March 25, 2023 by KompsFossilsNMinerals

[KompsFossilsNMinerals]

I had a great time at Penn Dixie’s Dig With The Experts this year, I left with 50+ bugs!  I’ve only just begun prepping them.  
 

 

Im happy with how this triple plate came out

 

 

 

Decent roller

 

 

 

I didn’t put these two plates together before prepping and ended up scribing and abrading the opposite side of where I should have, but I managed to fix it in the end.