DevonianDigger Posted November 2, 2016 Share Posted November 2, 2016 Hit up the site again today with @ischua, found a lot of trilobites. Mike was lucky enough to land a plate with two complete, prone Eldredgeops rana overlapping. Gorgeous piece, hoping he'll post pics when he's able. In the meantime, I started to prep out some of my completes that I found including this fella, which I am very proud of: I know, I know... doesn't seem all that impressive of a prep job... That is until you see this: Still could use a little more work but I need a finer abrasive first. Also, needs a coating, I just painted him with some water to make him shiny for his photo debut! 1 Jay A. Wollin Lead Fossil Educator - Penn Dixie Fossil Park and Nature Reserve Hamburg, New York, USA Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mediospirifer Posted November 3, 2016 Share Posted November 3, 2016 That is a sweet little bug!! Congrats! An excellent prep job, too. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
belemniten Posted November 3, 2016 Share Posted November 3, 2016 Great one ! The details are amazing Many greetings from Germany ! Have a great time with many fossils Regards Sebastian Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fossildude19 Posted November 3, 2016 Share Posted November 3, 2016 Very nice! Way to go, Jay. Regards, Tim - VETERAN SHALE SPLITTER VFOTM --- APRIL - 2015 __________________________________________________ "In every walk with nature one receives far more than he seeks." John Muir ~ ~ ~ ~ ><))))( *> About Me Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FossilDudeCO Posted November 8, 2016 Share Posted November 8, 2016 wow Jay great bug!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DevonianDigger Posted November 8, 2016 Author Share Posted November 8, 2016 Thanks guys! We're going back out tomorrow since it's still actually nice out. <knocks on wood> We've really had some awesome hauls this fall. Have quite a few completes and near completes that I'm working on now as well. Pics to follow! Jay A. Wollin Lead Fossil Educator - Penn Dixie Fossil Park and Nature Reserve Hamburg, New York, USA Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DevonianDigger Posted November 8, 2016 Author Share Posted November 8, 2016 This guy's not fully prepped yet for a couple of reasons. #1, he's got a broken nose; #2, he's got pyrite on his axial lobe that I'm afraid to try and chip off; #3, there are tons of other trilo-bits in this piece and I don't know how I want to move forward with the rest of the piece yet. Jay A. Wollin Lead Fossil Educator - Penn Dixie Fossil Park and Nature Reserve Hamburg, New York, USA Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FossilDudeCO Posted November 8, 2016 Share Posted November 8, 2016 Still able to hunt a week into November??? You lucky guy!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DevonianDigger Posted November 8, 2016 Author Share Posted November 8, 2016 Yeah! It's going to be 60 tomorrow still! Somewhat unreal for the area, but I'm not complaining Jay A. Wollin Lead Fossil Educator - Penn Dixie Fossil Park and Nature Reserve Hamburg, New York, USA Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DevonianDigger Posted November 8, 2016 Author Share Posted November 8, 2016 By the way @FossilDudeCO, sorry I forgot to mention it, I lost track of things over the weekend, but apparently the fundraiser was able to pull in over $6k. Thank you again! 1 Jay A. Wollin Lead Fossil Educator - Penn Dixie Fossil Park and Nature Reserve Hamburg, New York, USA Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FossilDudeCO Posted November 8, 2016 Share Posted November 8, 2016 @DevonianDigger no worries, glad I could help! Should help keep the doors open a couple more days so go find some more awesome stuff! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Malcolmt Posted November 8, 2016 Share Posted November 8, 2016 Nice bug..... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ischua Posted November 9, 2016 Share Posted November 9, 2016 Another day at Penn Dixie today with DevonianDigger another wagon load of stuff. I'm tired... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DevonianDigger Posted November 9, 2016 Author Share Posted November 9, 2016 Yes. Very sore, but got some seriously cool stuff this time. Including this little heartbreaker: Complete Greenops, minus the half of his head that we clipped off not knowing he was there. I've started prepping what's left of him, and he's going to still be pretty darn neat. Jay A. Wollin Lead Fossil Educator - Penn Dixie Fossil Park and Nature Reserve Hamburg, New York, USA Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DevonianDigger Posted November 9, 2016 Author Share Posted November 9, 2016 This, not so little guy: after a little prep work: Jay A. Wollin Lead Fossil Educator - Penn Dixie Fossil Park and Nature Reserve Hamburg, New York, USA Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DevonianDigger Posted November 9, 2016 Author Share Posted November 9, 2016 Don't know if these guys are complete or yet, but it should be a fun prep job either way! Jay A. Wollin Lead Fossil Educator - Penn Dixie Fossil Park and Nature Reserve Hamburg, New York, USA Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DevonianDigger Posted November 9, 2016 Author Share Posted November 9, 2016 This is one of the ones from last week, still not finished with him yet. Jay A. Wollin Lead Fossil Educator - Penn Dixie Fossil Park and Nature Reserve Hamburg, New York, USA Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DevonianDigger Posted November 9, 2016 Author Share Posted November 9, 2016 Neither @ischua nor I, have any clue what this is, but we're thinking plant. Notice the little white hair-like things sticking out it. Jay A. Wollin Lead Fossil Educator - Penn Dixie Fossil Park and Nature Reserve Hamburg, New York, USA Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fossildude19 Posted November 9, 2016 Share Posted November 9, 2016 I would say plant too, Jay. The black carbonaceous film is often indicative of plant material. Neat finds. Thanks for sharing them - looking forward to your winter prepping. Regards, Tim - VETERAN SHALE SPLITTER VFOTM --- APRIL - 2015 __________________________________________________ "In every walk with nature one receives far more than he seeks." John Muir ~ ~ ~ ~ ><))))( *> About Me Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fossil-Hound Posted November 15, 2016 Share Posted November 15, 2016 On 11/8/2016 at 7:59 PM, DevonianDigger said: This is one of the ones from last week, still not finished with him yet. @DevonianDigger man I am so jealous. I ended up purchasing a nice Phacops off of Ebay for $20 just to have something to compare against while prepping. The trilobite is definitely from PD and the condition is pristine. I'll post him soon. I need to pickup an airscribe but am terrified to start the process. I need to send you the one bug I was hoping you could prep just so I could get a basic idea for how to even attempt this sort of thing. You're finds are amazing though! Seriously how did you find these? I have been up there six times and haven't found anything that cool. Then again I have some that just need prep work, so maybe they are nice. School is almost over (Dec. 15) so I'm going to ask the wife for a nice airscribe for Christmas, but I'm worried about dust getting everywhere. My apartment is a bit small, so I might need to find a friend nearby who has a shed. Do or do not. There is no try. - Yoda Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fossildude19 Posted November 15, 2016 Share Posted November 15, 2016 9 minutes ago, jsnrice said: @DevonianDigger man I am so jealous. I ended up purchasing a nice Phacops off of Ebay for $20 just to have something to compare against while prepping. The trilobite is definitely from PD and the condition is pristine. I'll post him soon. I need to pickup an airscribe but am terrified to start the process. I need to send you the one bug I was hoping you could prep just so I could get a basic idea for how to even attempt this sort of thing. You're finds are amazing though! Seriously how did you find these? I have been up there six times and haven't found anything that cool. Then again I have some that just need prep work, so maybe they are nice. School is almost over (Dec. 15) so I'm going to ask the wife for a nice airscribe for Christmas, but I'm worried about dust getting everywhere. My apartment is a bit small, so I might need to find a friend nearby who has a shed. Read this thread from HRguy54. He does amazing work with safety pins and a dremel. Regards, Tim - VETERAN SHALE SPLITTER VFOTM --- APRIL - 2015 __________________________________________________ "In every walk with nature one receives far more than he seeks." John Muir ~ ~ ~ ~ ><))))( *> About Me Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DevonianDigger Posted November 15, 2016 Author Share Posted November 15, 2016 @jsnrice, for what it's worth, the beginning of my season started out pretty weak and I didn't find much of anything. It turns out that it's really about the tools. I used to think that you could find good stuff just going through the weathered out piles. While it's true that occasionally you will find something cool in them, there is nothing that can compare to just breaking tons of rock. (I mean tons literally, lol.) @ischua and I changed the topography of the site this fall moving huge amounts of rock. It's all about identifying the productive layers, and strategically removing them. Then splitting all those rocks and hoping for the best. We pulled hundreds of pounds of blank rock just to find a handful of complete bugs. It's a numbers game. The more you move, the more you'll find. I've got some more cephalons I can send you to practice prepping. Don't worry about beating them up, just get used to the tools. The air eraser I recommended won't destroy them, if anything it will remove some of the finer details like those in the schizicoidal eyes and the little bumps on the glabella. Other than that, you can remove the shinier layer of finish that occurs naturally on them. But, practice with distance and stroke speed is the only way to guarantee that you won't damage better specimens when you work on them. As for the dust, harbor freight sells some nice sandblasting cabinets for around $80. When I first started, I used a cardboard box and a paper mask, lol. I'm still piecing together a better setup. Most pros have around $10k worth of prep equipment. I have about $400—still a long way to go! I'll try to drop a box of better pieces for you to work on next week for shipping. Jay A. Wollin Lead Fossil Educator - Penn Dixie Fossil Park and Nature Reserve Hamburg, New York, USA Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fossil-Hound Posted November 16, 2016 Share Posted November 16, 2016 Sure I'll practice on them! Holy cow this sounds like an expensive hobby. Thanks @DevonianDigger I did find this and this seems like a good video: 1 Do or do not. There is no try. - Yoda Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DevonianDigger Posted November 16, 2016 Author Share Posted November 16, 2016 Yeah! The Goldbugs videos are an awesome start. Check out the one where he preps out a trilobite compete with legs intact! Jay A. Wollin Lead Fossil Educator - Penn Dixie Fossil Park and Nature Reserve Hamburg, New York, USA Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fossil-Hound Posted November 16, 2016 Share Posted November 16, 2016 Alright a trilobite with legs scares me! I would never attempt such a feat! Do or do not. There is no try. - Yoda Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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