Zinalu Posted January 18, 2017 Share Posted January 18, 2017 I was a bit curious about how they split ammonites, I first had a theory they might pour some sort of resin into it, partly to be able to split it aswell as preservation, before they use a thin saw to split it, then they make it shiny and nice, but I figured that might not work, so maybe anyone here knows Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ludwigia Posted January 18, 2017 Share Posted January 18, 2017 It's actually quite simple to understand when you know that in very many cases, the chambers of the phragmocone have been filled with minerally saturated water many years ago which then precipitated out during the process of fossilization, mostly as calcite, like in the photo you are showing us. Then it's just a matter of cutting, sanding and polishing. This is all natural substance. 1 Greetings from the Lake of Constance. Roger http://www.steinkern.de/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ludwigia Posted January 18, 2017 Share Posted January 18, 2017 This link explains what a phragmocone is. Greetings from the Lake of Constance. Roger http://www.steinkern.de/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bone Daddy Posted January 19, 2017 Share Posted January 19, 2017 I have cut one in half using a diamond blade on the same saw I cut meteorites with. It worked, but my results were not ideal. The saw left behind a lot of marks that I sanded and polished out. The end result looked pretty good, but it took quite a bit of polishing to remove all of the saw marks. I probably wasn't using the right blade for that kind of cutting. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Uncle Siphuncle Posted January 19, 2017 Share Posted January 19, 2017 I paid a lapidary guy to cut some Texas Sphenodiscus ammonites with a big diamond saw. He first encased each in a block of plaster to give him something to hold onto while running them through the saw. He then lay them cut side down on a Vibra Lap for several days to polish the calcite. I like the end result. 3 Grüße, Daniel A. Wöhr aus Südtexas "To the motivated go the spoils." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zinalu Posted January 19, 2017 Author Share Posted January 19, 2017 2 hours ago, Ludwigia said: It's actually quite simple to understand when you know that in very many cases, the chambers of the phragmocone have been filled with minerally saturated water many years ago which then precipitated out during the process of fossilization, mostly as calcite, like in the photo you are showing us. Then it's just a matter of cutting, sanding and polishing. This is all natural substance. Ohhh then I see that explains how even damages can still be there, which I find pretty cool, thank you! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ludwigia Posted January 19, 2017 Share Posted January 19, 2017 @Zinalu It might interest you to have a look at the "Slices" section in my gallery to see what's possibly hidden on the insides of some fossils. 1 Greetings from the Lake of Constance. Roger http://www.steinkern.de/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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