Aunduril Posted January 20, 2018 Share Posted January 20, 2018 How do you guys store your fossils to keep them protected, for both display and long term storage? Does anyone use any special equipment or techniques? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
caldigger Posted January 21, 2018 Share Posted January 21, 2018 All depends on what you are referring to. Are they in delicate shale or matrix that is crumbling? Are they suffering pyrite disease? Or are we just talking about how to display or general storing? What in particular are you asking about? If stable like rock or sturdy fossil, then just display. Lots of collectors like putting them in a glass cabinet or clear containment to keep relatively dust free. If your fossils require consolidation to prevent disintegration, then that is a whole nother subject. If that's the case, there are some very good threads in the fossil preparation topic. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BMoore Posted January 21, 2018 Share Posted January 21, 2018 I recently reorganized my, rather modest primarily invertebrate, collection. I built a cabinet with eight drawers from oak (potential ouch) plywood with solid oak drawer fronts. I put the best single smaller specimens in 14x8 riker boxes. I can put 12 3/4 inch riker boxes in a drawer. I also use some 1 3/4 inch riker boxes. I put seconds and other fossils not in riker boxes in plastics bags with labels and put the bags in labeled IKEA TJENA Boxes. In the bottom draw I have odd shaped larger fossils. All fossils are listed with photos in an access database. At least now I can find what I want when I want. Previously I had my fossils in all sorts of plastic boxes stored around the house. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aunduril Posted January 21, 2018 Author Share Posted January 21, 2018 31 minutes ago, caldigger said: All depends on what you are referring to. Are they in delicate shale or matrix that is crumbling? Are they suffering pyrite disease? Or are we just talking about how to display or general storing? What in particular are you asking about? If stable like rock or sturdy fossil, then just display. Lots of collectors like putting them in a glass cabinet or clear containment to keep relatively dust free. If your fossils require consolidation to prevent disintegration, then that is a whole nother subject. If that's the case, there are some very good threads in the fossil preparation topic. It's really more of just a general question, as I don't have any fossils yet. So I would say information on any of the questions you posed would be appreciated. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wrangellian Posted January 21, 2018 Share Posted January 21, 2018 BMoore beat me to it. Most of my stuff is too big (or fragile) for Rikers but not too big for shallow drawers and I could use every unit I can get. The white boxes are not hard to come by and you can buy at a fabric store soft cloth to use under the fossils. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aunduril Posted January 21, 2018 Author Share Posted January 21, 2018 11 hours ago, BMoore said: I recently reorganized my, rather modest primarily invertebrate, collection. I built a cabinet with eight drawers from oak (potential ouch) plywood with solid oak drawer fronts. I put the best single smaller specimens in 14x8 riker boxes. I can put 12 3/4 inch riker boxes in a drawer. I also use some 1 3/4 inch riker boxes. I put seconds and other fossils not in riker boxes in plastics bags with labels and put the bags in labeled IKEA TJENA Boxes. In the bottom draw I have odd shaped larger fossils. All fossils are listed with photos in an access database. At least now I can find what I want when I want. Previously I had my fossils in all sorts of plastic boxes stored around the house. Thanks for the great pictures! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
caldigger Posted January 21, 2018 Share Posted January 21, 2018 I see you are from Maine (moisture). If you do get into collecting and intend to store your items like this. You may want go get some small desicant packets to put in the back of the drawers to keep things nice and dry for your treasures. Often you can find these in most stores that sell household goods. They make them for putting in closets, gun cabinets, etc. to draw up the moisture. You will hate opening up a drawer only to find something growing on your items or worse a box of crumbs that used to hold a nice specimen. I don't worry too much about it in California. The only moisture we get is from the tap. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aunduril Posted January 21, 2018 Author Share Posted January 21, 2018 6 minutes ago, caldigger said: I see you are from Maine (moisture). If you do get into collecting and intend to store your items like this. You may want go get some small desicant packets to put in the back of the drawers to keep things nice and dry for your treasures. Often you can find these in most stores that sell household goods. They make them for putting in closets, gun cabinets, etc. to draw up the moisture. You will hate opening up a drawer only to find something growing on your items or worse a box of crumbs that used to hold a nice specimen. I don't worry too much about it in California. The only moisture we get is from the tap. Thanks for the info, the moisture is an issue around here. I have a nice rechargeable desiccant container with my coins that works well. I was considering looking into a humidity control cabinet, but wanted to see what others did for their collections. I'm try to plan ahead to be prepared for when I pull the trigger on my first fossil. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sagebrush Steve Posted January 24, 2018 Share Posted January 24, 2018 @BMoore and @Wrangellian have done a good job of showing you how they store their fossils. To continue the story, here is a link to a thread about a fossil storage cabinet I built: And here is one started by @Monica that talks about displaying them: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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