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How do I start a collection?


Fossilian

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Find or buy a fossil and keep it. Then add more.

 

Depends on whether You are trying to display or store, and the size/shape of the fossil.

Darwin said: " Man sprang from monkeys."

Will Rogers said: " Some of them didn't spring far enough."

 

My Fossil collection - My Mineral collection

My favorite thread on TFF.

 

 

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Ahhhhh Tony you beat me! But I was going to say , pretty much the same thing.

Dipleurawhisperer5.jpg

I like Trilo-butts and I cannot lie.

 

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15 minutes ago, ynot said:

Find or buy a fossil and keep it. Then add more.

 

Depends on whether You are trying to display or store, and the size/shape of the fossil.

 

Some I would like to store, some to display. What boxes should I use?

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Depending on how many you plan to have in the end (if there is an end), you could use one or a few nice wood-framed display cases with glass or plexiglass on top to keep dust and greasy probing fingers off....

But once you get to amass a huge collection I always recommend the shallow-drawer kind of storage cabinets, which are the best way I know of to store a lot of material in a tidy, accessible way - the only trouble is they seem to be hard to come by (and laborious to build), but you might luck out if you keep your eyes and ears open (eg. on craigslist or government auctions):

590fdea02a508_DSC_0178shr.jpg.054f3f3bc6c97f155cf9a9c9af9d96bc.jpg

590fdea244c42_DSC_0179shr.jpg.c1481b5102714b376e7cd0f4d6fe2195.jpg

Big ones go on top. (Don't know where else they can go) Hopefully you don't end up with more big ones than you have room for...

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Wrangellian,

 

Sometimes, at flea markets you can find people who make wood display cases as a hobby and sell them cheap relative to the time and skill they put into them

 

A friend has at least two sets of metal drawers similar to those.

 

Jess

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8 hours ago, Wrangellian said:

Depending on how many you plan to have in the end (if there is an end), you could use one or a few nice wood-framed display cases with glass or plexiglass on top to keep dust and greasy probing fingers off....

But once you get to amass a huge collection I always recommend the shallow-drawer kind of storage cabinets, which are the best way I know of to store a lot of material in a tidy, accessible way - the only trouble is they seem to be hard to come by (and laborious to build), but you might luck out if you keep your eyes and ears open (eg. on craigslist or government auctions):

590fdea02a508_DSC_0178shr.jpg.054f3f3bc6c97f155cf9a9c9af9d96bc.jpg

590fdea244c42_DSC_0179shr.jpg.c1481b5102714b376e7cd0f4d6fe2195.jpg

Big ones go on top. (Don't know where else they can go) Hopefully you don't end up with more big ones than you have room for...

 

WOW! That looks awesome!

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The ideal containers/displays for a given collection will vary depending on what types of fossils you have. There are a number of inexpensive glass curio cabinets from stores such as IKEA that can be used to display fossils. The fossils I've purchased come in all shapes and sizes so I use a glass display cabinet to display many of them. Riker mounts are good for displaying teeth and smaller items. Virtually all of the teeth I posses, from shark teeth to dinosaur teeth make their way into a riker mount. If you're going to store fossils, cabinets with drawers such as the examples above are a good way to go. In your collection's infancy small plastic "fishing tackle-box" types of containers can be used to store specimens.

 

Are you planning to begin your collection by finding your own fossils or purchasing fossils? My collection started out when I was young with inexpensive fossils. Certain types of trilobites, plant imprints, sharks teeth, cephalopods, brachiopods and fish fossils are a good place to start without breaking the bank. You can even get certain dinosaur/reptile fossils for reasonable prices. On various websites you can find "fossil starter kits" which are lots of randomly assorted fossils. These "starter kits" can be used to jump start your collection.

 

Update: I noticed you had posted in another topic about a family trip to Big Brook, New Jersey. You'll likely be finding sharks teeth at this site. I would highly recommend riker mounts to display/store any teeth you find. Riker mounts come in a variety of sizes.

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7 hours ago, Bguild said:

The ideal containers/displays for a given collection will vary depending on what types of fossils you have. There are a number of inexpensive glass curio cabinets from stores such as IKEA that can be used to display fossils. The fossils I've purchased come in all shapes and sizes so I use a glass display cabinet to display many of them. Riker mounts are good for displaying teeth and smaller items. Virtually all of the teeth I posses, from shark teeth to dinosaur teeth make their way into a riker mount. If you're going to store fossils, cabinets with drawers such as the examples above are a good way to go. In your collection's infancy small plastic "fishing tackle-box" types of containers can be used to store specimens.

 

Are you planning to begin your collection by finding your own fossils or purchasing fossils? My collection started out when I was young with inexpensive fossils. Certain types of trilobites, plant imprints, sharks teeth, cephalopods, brachiopods and fish fossils are a good place to start without breaking the bank. You can even get certain dinosaur/reptile fossils for reasonable prices. On various websites you can find "fossil starter kits" which are lots of randomly assorted fossils. These "starter kits" can be used to jump start your collection.

 

Update: I noticed you had posted in another topic about a family trip to Big Brook, New Jersey. You'll likely be finding sharks teeth at this site. I would highly recommend riker mounts to display/store any teeth you find. Riker mounts come in a variety of sizes.

 

 

Thanks, I will probably be purchasing riker mounts or just putting my fossils in a big jar until I get enough to start a collection.

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21 hours ago, siteseer said:

Wrangellian,

Sometimes, at flea markets you can find people who make wood display cases as a hobby and sell them cheap relative to the time and skill they put into them

A friend has at least two sets of metal drawers similar to those.

Jess

Would be nice to run into someone like that... I guess it's possible but haven't found anyone like this in my travels, except for a friend I have in Nanaimo who does this kind of thing - he actually made 3 of the cabinets like those one in my 1st pic above, and I finished them with handles, feet, varnish... I shouldn't take too much advantage of him so I don't want to ask him to do for more, however :blush: And anyway, there is a point where I should just start getting rid of fossils rather than hoarding them! High-grading, they call it.

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6 hours ago, Fossilian said:

 

 or just putting my fossils in a big jar until I get enough to start a collection.

 

I wouldn't do that unless you're bent on damaging and scratching them.

 

Greetings from the Lake of Constance. Roger

http://www.steinkern.de/

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On 2017-05-08 at 10:16 PM, ynot said:

You can also call it improving the quality of the collection.:P

...by reducing the quantity, yes.  ;)

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