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Best way to clean shale off fossils?


JarrodB

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I normally clean my North Sulphur River fossils with a little Simple Green and warm water but it doesn't seem to work on the freshly exposed fossils with the hard grey shale on them. What is something safe that I can try without damaging my finds? All feedback is appreciated.

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Edited by JarrodB
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maybe a short bath in hydrogen peroxide, then brush and repeat

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"Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence"_ Carl Sagen

No trees were killed in this posting......however, many innocent electrons were diverted from where they originally intended to go.

" I think, therefore I collect fossils." _ Me

"When you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth."__S. Holmes

"can't we all just get along?" Jack Nicholson from Mars Attacks

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What he said..... Works great for material in our area. I have some 50% solution that I dilute but it is hard to find and dangerous. The normal 3% will work too. May take a little scrubbing but the bath in that will soften it up.

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Anything chemical like h2o2, try it on a piece of snarge first. If that shale penetrates into the bone, the treatment could bust it up.

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I've found a nice long soaking in soapy water does well for loosening up the shale. But, I don't usually want to wait that long so I go after it with my Aro. It's much faster!

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