Caleb Posted March 29, 2013 Share Posted March 29, 2013 Last summer my father spotted a slab of Calymene celebra from Grafton, IL Milwaukee, WI in a small shop in a small town in Northern Minnesota. A while later I went to the shop and took a look at it. After a bit of discussion we purchased the slab with the intention to prep it a little better. In the store, the slab had 11 trilobites exposed. There looked to be quite a bit of matrix that could be chiseled down and there was a possibility of exposing more trilobites. My father started chiseling away excess matrix in search for more bugs, and more bugs were found. The total as of right now is 17 complete Calymene celebra. The Niagara Dolomite is extremely hard and a hammer and chisel proved to be a daunting task, so we enlisted the help of an air chisel. Once a trilobite is exposed/discovered, we then use and air scribe to get close to the trilobite. Now comes the question of how we should finish the slab once we are done looking for more bugs? Should we leave it the natural grey color of the matrix? Or, should we grind the matrix so it looks whiter and creates more contrast between the matrix and the bugs? I really wish I would have taken a before photo... Caleb Midwestpaleo.com Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Malcolmt Posted March 29, 2013 Share Posted March 29, 2013 That is an amazing slab. Hmm how would I finish it........... I suspect i would not grind it. I would likely air abrade the chiselled areas to bring it back to a coloring closer to the raw matrix. I would likely leave the unchisiled pristine areas of matrix as is. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
piranha Posted March 29, 2013 Share Posted March 29, 2013 My vote is to landscape everything since there are matrix breaks, gaps to fill and the areas around the trilobites are already scribed. A very nice result could be achieved by making sure the scribe marks all go in one direction. A lot of hours on the air-chisel but that one will certainly be worth the effort. Spectacular showpiece.... Congrats Caleb! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sward Posted March 29, 2013 Share Posted March 29, 2013 Who knows, if you do a little more work on it, you may find more...as if 17 isn't enough already. Beautiful piece. I can only imagine having a display piece such as this. Congrats! SWardSoutheast Missouri (formerly Dallas/Ft. Worth, TX) USA Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Auspex Posted March 29, 2013 Share Posted March 29, 2013 Visually, I think it would benefit from a visit to the blasting cabinet. It's a fabulous piece in any case! "There has been an alarming increase in the number of things I know nothing about." - Ashleigh Ellwood Brilliant “Try to learn something about everything and everything about something.” - Thomas Henry Huxley >Paleontology is an evolving science. >May your wonders never cease! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Caleb Posted March 29, 2013 Author Share Posted March 29, 2013 Thanks for your input! Putting it under the air abrasive to remove the scribe marks making the entire matrix grey would certainly be a lot faster than scribing/grinding the entire piece to make a white sculpted background. Either way would look sharp in my opinion. There's still a fair amount of matrix to chisel off and maybe even some more trilobites to find so we'll have time to ponder this. Caleb Midwestpaleo.com Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jpc Posted March 30, 2013 Share Posted March 30, 2013 Caleb- bring it to the hospital. It coul use a good xraying. You might find a bunch more bugs in there. Xray or CT scan. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
trilobiteruss Posted March 30, 2013 Share Posted March 30, 2013 Neat slab, I love that location. Some good recommendations here. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ludwigia Posted March 30, 2013 Share Posted March 30, 2013 Whatever you choose to do in the end, you'll have a great showcase piece there. In the end you'll probably have to combine scribing and abrading since, as you say, the matrix is very hard and the abrading will need a lot of psi. I'd still try to keep the matrix as natural as possible. Greetings from the Lake of Constance. Roger http://www.steinkern.de/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Caleb Posted April 8, 2013 Author Share Posted April 8, 2013 We had this slab at the MAPS show and it naturally drew a lot of attention. We had it labeled with it's most current name, Sthenarocalymene celebra from Grafton, IL. When we acquired this piece it did not have any location information, so through some research we concluded it was from Grafton, IL. Apparently this location was wrong as one of the authorities of this trilobite (Don Mikulic, PhD) kindly informed us. This slab, it turns out, is actually from Milwaukee, WI which for me is a bit nicer since I'm from Wisconsin. While the same species occur in both Grafton, IL and Milwaukee, WI he described in detail the differences in matrix and preservation between the two localities. One never knows who they will meet at the MAPS fossil show! More photos to be shown as prep continues on this slab. Caleb Midwestpaleo.com Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
piranha Posted April 8, 2013 Share Posted April 8, 2013 The status on all the 'celebra' trilobites is confusing to say the least. I will happily defer to Don Mikulic's expertise on calymenid taxonomy! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
squalicorax Posted April 8, 2013 Share Posted April 8, 2013 Looks familiar to me. Love the separation on the molds compared to other midwest sites with similar calymenes. Dr. Mikulic's trilobite collections are at my university. Your specimen likely came from the Hartung Quarry in Wauwatosa WI. My Flickr Page of My Collection: http://www.flickr.com/photos/79424101@N00/sets Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
evren Posted April 8, 2013 Share Posted April 8, 2013 Sweet slab Caleb! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hrguy54 Posted April 11, 2013 Share Posted April 11, 2013 That is an incredible find! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ZiggieCie Posted September 30, 2013 Share Posted September 30, 2013 Great find. Here is a link that you and others may find very helpful in fossil prep. It has info on tools, but also very important is the product B72 that is mixed and used for a reversible adhesives and consolidants to firm up fossils. There are also links to suppliers of supplies. http://preparation.paleo.amnh.org/assets/BurkeMuseumLabManual_Jan2010b.pdf Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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