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Some White River Material


RJB

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   I finally got around to working on some Oreodont stuff.  Last year I stopped by a friends house and bought a bunch of White River material.   (my friend is going to stop by this May and bring me a bunch more).   I did  some work on some Oreodont stuff 20 some years ago and figured it would be fun to work on some more.  I will call this skull #1.   I realized at once that some of the skull was missing.  Not good.

 

I had already opened up this one and took off a bunch of loose rock and then decided to take a photo.

You can see the earthquake crack in the rock and this thing was litterally falling apart all over the place. 

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In this picture ive removed all the materail on the right of the crack including upper and lower jaw pieces. 

I was quite nervous but it was also fun and exciting.

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At this point ive use up almost an intire 2 oz bottle of super glue to hold the top part of this all together and

when I turned it over, very carefully, lots of rock just came off with no prodding or nothing.  The good thing

was that the upper part held together and you can easily see the lower part of the lower jaws.   At this point it was

time for a wiskey.  :)

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Here I glued back on the missing lower teeth.  This thing was so fractured and falling apart the nothing really

fit like it was supposed to but did the best that i could.  Those extra two pieces on the left hand side also need

to be glued back together and then both glued back onto the skull.

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Ok, bottom pieces glued back on and now set aside to cure. Tomorrow is gunna be a fun day. 

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RB

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   Here is skull #2.   I carefully picked this up out of its jacket and was hoping it would not fall apart.   It made it to my prep bench.  This skull is much smaller then #1 but appears to have the zygo's. 

 

 

When I picked this thing up out of its jacket all the materail in front of the snout was about 2000 pieces.  I will

have to check out all that material and see if any bone or front teeth are in amoungst it.

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Imeadiatly a big chunck of rock fell off but didnt take any bone with it.  I was smiling.

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With just a little bit of air scribe work it was already starting to look purty good.

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I turned it over and did a tad bit more work and then called it quits.  I cant do as much as i used too.

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RB

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16 minutes ago, RJB said:

This thing was so fractured and falling apart the nothing really

fit like it was supposed to 

Sure that wasn't because of the whisky? :P

 

 

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Your work bench is always so much fun.  Beautiful ammonites and lobsters just hanging around watching the proceedings.

 

Don

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5 hours ago, caldigger said:

Sure that wasn't because of the whisky?

Yep, purty dang sure.  Ive been drinkin whiskey for many a year and always when Im prepping.  It would be frightning how good I would be if I quit drinkin!!!  Yikes!!!    I dont drink in the house, just the garage.

 

 

3 hours ago, FossilDAWG said:

Your work bench is always so much fun.  Beautiful ammonites and lobsters just hanging around watching the proceedings.

Hey Don, I had to scroll back up and check out the photos to see what you were talking about.   Apparently I have many projects laying about.  

 

RB

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7 minutes ago, Ludwigia said:

Good thing you know what you're looking for in that mess! What a jumble!

Yeah, it really is a mess, but its also missing lots of bone and is somewhat disarticulated too.  Wont be keeping this one, but its good for practice and still fun. 

 

RB

 

 

 

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 I put in about 4 more hours into this skull #1.  This thing has more problems than I can count but at least you can see that it is a skull?   Ive removed a ton more rock but left rock around the teeth on purpace to protect them and help hold them in place because of all the moving around this thing.   Got a ways to go but  its gunna be interesting with some fixing and such?  Ive found some bone in the 'throat' of this thing which I think is a piece of the skull?  Will try and save it? 

 

RB

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Ron, this is a great thread. The whiskey can help you out to a point. Back when I used to imbibe, I started off a tricky prep with a rum drink to calm the nerves. It works.

 

Skull #1 should be really nice once you get done. It’s rare to see oreodonts with their mouth open.

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Thanks, Ron, for stopping to take all these photos while you work. It's "jaw-dropping" to watch what you can do with a pile of rock and bone.

Start the day with a smile and get it over with.

 

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On 3/10/2019 at 8:32 PM, Ptychodus04 said:

Ron, this is a great thread

 

On 3/13/2019 at 8:00 PM, ynot said:

I can't even imagine prepping something like that.

Your master prep skills just amaze Me.

 

23 hours ago, Pagurus said:

Thanks, Ron, for stopping to take all these photos while you work. It's "jaw-dropping" to watch what you can do with a pile of rock and bone.

 

Thanks you guys.  I havent done much on these lately.  Been busy around the house and that makes the misses happy.  I also gotta figure out how 'exactly' to remove the iron from this skull? 

 

RB

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45 minutes ago, RJB said:

  I also gotta figure out how 'exactly' to remove the iron from this skull? 

 

RB

How thick and hard is it? If it is somewhat oxidized, it can typically be scribes off.

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22 hours ago, Ptychodus04 said:

How thick and hard is it? If it is somewhat oxidized, it can typically be scribes off.

Its really thin, but very hard material.  In some areas it has come off without even trying but other areas the rust seems to be sticky?

 

RB

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1 hour ago, RJB said:

Its really thin, but very hard material.  In some areas it has come off without even trying but other areas the rust seems to be sticky?

 

RB

It can actually grow into the bone. If it is really hard and sticky, sometimes the only thing you can do is to beat it down as much as possible and grind it smooth.

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On 3/16/2019 at 8:10 AM, Ptychodus04 said:

If it is really hard and sticky, sometimes the only thing you can do is to beat it down as much as possible and grind it smooth.

  Well, this is not good news.   But this skull is really a mess so if thats what it comes too,,,, so be it.    

 

RB

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5 hours ago, RJB said:

  Well, this is not good news.   But this skull is really a mess so if thats what it comes too,,,, so be it.    

 

RB

I ran into some iron on a fish once that was so high grade, my scribe stylus polished it to a sheen but wouldn’t cut through it.

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