4 Fossils prep advice required

[Fred81]

Hello everyone! I am new to the world of fossils and even more so to the preparation.
Since I'm doing this by myself, I still don't know how to recognize each type of rock, so it makes it more difficult for me to figure out what type of motodo to use for preparation. In the pictures they look grey/greenish but in person they look whiter. Also, the cloth on the bottom is clear white while in the picture it looks blueish...
 

So, let's take these 4 fossils as examples:
1)Is there a way to know if when preparing them I will find more parts of the fossil inside the rock or it is only the outer part that has that shape and inside both the fossil and the matrix are one single thing?

2) This other case is very similar to the previous one, so I think the answer would be the same. In any case, I would like to know how they would approach each case:

3) In this case, in my opinion, there is a belemnite on an ammonite that is covered by sediment. Anyway you can see a part of the ammonite where the sediment has been lost. Again, what do you think would look good to do to this one?

4) Finally we see an ammonite discovered on the surface of a rock. I don't know if there is almost anything to do in this one, but any suggestion will be good to take into account.

Also, what are your thought on the Dremel 290? I cannot afford any better tool. What other tools would you recommend?
Many thanks in advance to all who are interested.
Greetings,

Alfred

[FranzBernhard]

Can not help much on this topic, but would you like to tell us from which formation you collected them?

I will tag just one German expert: @Ludwigia. Thank you!
Franz Bernhard

[Ludwigia]

Hi. Just back from a week's holiday in Belgium and noticed this. First of all, as Franz has requested, please tell us where these were found and also the stratigraphy if possible. I can't say much about Dremels since I've never used them, so if you're doing this by hand, you'll just have to take your chances with a hammer and small chisels. There is definitely more of the ammonites under the matrix anyway. Keeping the belemnite on block #3 may be difficult, however, if you want to free up the ammonite more. Since you obviously don't have an abrader, you could try scrubbing #4 with a steel brush under running water.

[Fred81]

On 5/7/2023 at 3:31 PM, FranzBernhard said:

Can not help much on this topic, but would you like to tell us from which formation you collected them?

I will tag just one German expert: @Ludwigia. Thank you!
Franz Bernhard

 

On 5/9/2023 at 11:24 AM, Ludwigia said:

Hi. Just back from a week's holiday in Belgium and noticed this. First of all, as Franz has requested, please tell us where these were found and also the stratigraphy if possible. I can't say much about Dremels since I've never used them, so if you're doing this by hand, you'll just have to take your chances with a hammer and small chisels. There is definitely more of the ammonites under the matrix anyway. Keeping the belemnite on block #3 may be difficult, however, if you want to free up the ammonite more. Since you obviously don't have an abrader, you could try scrubbing #4 with a steel brush under running water.

 

 

Thank you very much both of you!
Those were given to me a few years ago by a lady I met on the mountain. She didn't tell me were she got them from. If she found them in that area in mallorca, acording to maps it's a cretaceous-jurassic area, but I cannot know for sure if that's were she got them from or if she got them somewhere else as she wasn't spanish.

I've tried with the dremel 290 but those rocks are way too hard. I'll need to get better tips for the machine to work properly.
Your suggestion about the steel brush sounds good. The other method you suggest is with a rotatory dremel and a steel brush tip?
Thank you for helping and teaching. It's a whole new world for me. Never thought of trying to prep them! It's great!

[Ludwigia]

11 hours ago, Fred81 said:

The other method you suggest

 

I didn't suggest any other method other than hammer and chisel, but I'm sure that this article will be helpful. Or this. And that.

[Fred81]

On 5/12/2023 at 5:07 AM, Ludwigia said:

 

I didn't suggest any other method other than hammer and chisel, but I'm sure that this article will be helpful. Or this. And that.

Wow! Very interesting and helpful information. Really good suggestions on how to start with manual prep. Thanks so much!! I hope I can begin uploading pictures of my own work. Cheers