Bad Rock Crab

[RJB]

  A few months ago a friend of mine offered me this crab concretion for $30.  That was for postage too.  I knew this could be a fairly large crab, (a rather large conc), even knowing that the claws were a bit damaged I decided to buy it and see what happens?   A concretions is almost always a gamble.  As it sometimes happens, what he and I both thought was 'dorsal' turned out to be ventral.  Dang!!  Took me hours to find that out but turned it over and started again.  This is a first for me, but im gunna prep out some of the ventral and all of the dorsal, with a bit of pincer repair.   Lots of the front of the concretion is missing with some pincer damage,  which I absolutely hate, (the reason I got it for $30),   so this is gunna be another b-grade crab, but it should be a purty nice b-grade crab?  Time will tell. 

 

RB

[Ptychodus04]

@RJB you are a machine. I am amazed you have bounced back so quickly after your stroke. I can’t wait to see what you do with this one. 

[RJB]

3 minutes ago, Ptychodus04 said:

you are a machine. I am amazed you have bounced back so quickly after your stroke. I can’t wait to see what you do with this one. 

Well thank you o kind sir.   Ive not changed one bit and its a bit disturbing and it may effect me the rest of my life?  But I do what I can do.  Sitting and playing with a rock of whatever kind is a big part of what keeps me going.  Siting there and prepping  is now the easiest thing I do, that and the stupid idiot box.    Everything else is a bit hard.  But even now, while playing on the computer I already have all the dinner prep done and ready to go.  Takes me a bit of time, but hey, how bout some 4 cheese raviolis covered in alfrado sauce with puread onion and garlic, sausage with sauted onion and bell pepper and steamed broccoli from the garden.  But back to this crab, Im very nervous about the pincers!!!???   You can see how1 inch of the outside of the rock is very light in color.  Very soft rock.  and the grey inside of the rock is very hard.  Makes for a tricky prep and even the change in the rock makes for a change in color and hardness in the crab parts! 

 

R B

[Ptychodus04]

I’ll be over for dinner shortly.

 

Keep up the fight. You’re a tough old buzzard so I can’t see this taking you down.  The fact you are still so active is a big positive for you I’m sure.

 

That crab does look tricky. Differential matrices are hard for sure. I’m glad it’s you and not me!

[ynot]

OH BOY!! Another episode of My favorite crab prep show!

[RJB]

   Ive got a bit more time into this concretion. You can see now that it has some leg issues. Some soft rock fell off in front exposing the left pincers. Had to do some stabilizing so they wouldn't fall off too! The crab parts in the soft part of this rock are also very soft. That dark spot in the left is some glue to hold even more rock from coming off. Still, it will be a very decent B-Grade crab. Here is an update picture

 

RB

[RJB]

  It may not look like it, but this is two more prep sessions.  Between 6 and 8 hours.  Im not keeping track of this one though.  Looks like this is gunna be a 5 legger.  Ive started the rock smoothing but I still have a bunch of prep work for the pincers.  Im saving those for last because they are in such soft rock.  Im also gunna do the finish smoothing with a grinder stone and then some barrel sanders.   This crab has two things going for it.  1, a rather large crab.  and 2, the outreach of the arms.  You dont get those too often.  

 

RB

[Ludwigia]

Nice one in my opinion.

[Fossildude19]

Coming along quite well, Ron. 

I know there are no tippy tips like you love, and not all the legs are there, but still, an impressive crab. 

Your B grades are most peoples A++++ grades.  

Lovely work so far. 

[Ptychodus04]

It looks like it wants a hug. 

 

Looking good Ron.

[RJB]

On 8/13/2018 at 5:07 PM, Fossildude19 said:

I know there are no tippy tips like you love,

Hey Tim, they are very hard to see in this picture, but it has two tippy tippy's. 

 

RB

 

[Shellseeker]

On 8/13/2018 at 5:33 PM, RJB said:

  It may not look like it, but this is two more prep sessions.  Between 6 and 8 hours.  Im not keeping track of this one though.  Looks like this is gunna be a 5 legger.  Ive started the rock smoothing but I still have a bunch of prep work for the pincers.  Im saving those for last because they are in such soft rock.  Im also gunna do the finish smoothing with a grinder stone and then some barrel sanders.   This crab has two things going for it.  1, a rather large crab.  and 2, the outreach of the arms.  You dont get those too often.  

 

RB

You are an artist Ron, creating works of Art that will last as long as humans appreciate beauty and outstanding prep work.

I envy your skills, experience, and drive. When I am no longer fit enough to hunt my river, I'll wish for some talent remotely close.

[RJB]

On 8/15/2018 at 6:24 AM, Shellseeker said:

You are an artist Ron, creating works of Art that will last as long as humans appreciate beauty and outstanding prep work.

I envy your skills, experience, and drive. When I am no longer fit enough to hunt my river, I'll wish for some talent remotely close.

Thank you my friend.

 

RB

[RJB]

Ok, the misses and I smoked our very first brisket yesterday and I got no time in for prep.  but the burnt ends were last nights dinner.  Yum!!!  Yum!!!  Anyways, I finally got into the garage today after a few missing days and spent another 5 1/4 hours on this thing.  The pincers are scaring the cowpoop out of me, but there has been a ton of glue added, but in a very controlled way so that the average joe can't see it, plus so far they are turning out purty dang good.  Two of the pincers have some repair issues, but i will get to those maybe?  Some scary stuff for me being that these are soooooooooo soft!!!  Ive still got to finish up these pincer area's and I also still have a number to do on the rock itself and then maybe it will looks as good as i want it to look?    Oh, ive got to work on the eyeballs too.

 

RB

[Walt]

Looks pretty darn sweet to this average Joe

[Ptychodus04]

Looking good @RJB. That brisket sounds good too! I haven’t smoked one since Memorial Day. 

[RJB]

OK,  I did not grind the rock smooth like I was going to.  Just dont like the grinding look.  Sorry.   I had a most nervous time trying to get the left pincers exsposed!   There were times when all I had to do was get the scribe close and the powdery rock would just fly!  thats how freakin soft it was!  and not only that, but I was very gently holding the top left pincer with my left forfinger and could feel the vibration of the scribe,,, and then,,,, all of a sudden I felt movement!!!  YIkes!!!   Had to stop and glue.  I even glued twice!  Not to mention all the other times I glued whilst exsposing these dang things!   I did not even attempt to do any pincer repair.  Just couldn't see it happening.  You would be amazed at how much glue is holding these pincers in place.  But now they are in really good shape.  Ive had some really soft rock before, but this is a first for me.  It was that soft.  Glad its over.  Made for some very nervous prepping.  But all in all, it came out beautiful and with the reaching claws, those make for a really neato crab specimen.  Also, I put in the first picture an average sized crab.  You can see that this crab is twice the size.  A bit larger than the norm.  This will be my last crab for awhile,  im off to the fishy's. 

 

RB

[Walt]

Beautiful!  

Nice job! 

[FossilDAWG]

I think that came out better than a "B" grade.  I'd give it an A- at least.  With those claws and the beautiful carapace, it's easy to overlook the couple of messed up legs.  

 

Don

[RJB]

24 minutes ago, Walt said:

Beautiful!  

  Thank you Walt. 

 

21 minutes ago, FossilDAWG said:

I think that came out better than a "B" grade.  I'd give it an A- at least.  With those claws and the beautiful carapace, it's easy to overlook the couple of messed up legs.  

Thanks Don,  but you have to realize im one picky son-of-a-gun.  If it had two nice legs on the left side to balance it out,  then I would keep it.  But no, this will not go into my collection.  It is a really nice B-Grade and someday will fill my gas tank many times over for another trip.

 

RB

[Ptychodus04]

Well done @RJB. That's beautiful. It is quite interesting how the crab color changes so significantly with the rock change.

[RJB]

15 minutes ago, Ptychodus04 said:

Well done @RJB. That's beautiful. It is quite interesting how the crab color changes so significantly with the rock change.

Thanks man.  Yeah, interesting, and now, thanks to about 3 large drinks, my nerves are getting back to normal.  Ha!!! 

 

RB

[Ptychodus04]

56 minutes ago, RJB said:

Thanks man.  Yeah, interesting, and now, thanks to about 3 large drinks, my nerves are getting back to normal.  Ha!!! 

 

RB

I'll bet! I would be a ball of stress on that one too.

[RJB]

  I am trying an Ebay experiment with this crab.  Gunna be interesting.  wish me luck

 

RB

[Walt]

List it as a Trex eating crab.  Tell them he lost his pincher when the meteor hit.  The more outrageous, the better they sell, it seems. 

 

But seriously, good luck.  You deserve it for all that work!