Kane's Bug Preps

[Ptychodus04]

2 hours ago, Kane said:

I hear you on the E. ranas, although I don't have as many pristine ones left to prep (mostly rollers left, or ones with crush damage and other problems).

 

I'm also seeing that some kind of evil polar vortex is set to lock in next month and into March, which sucks. I'm also jonesing pretty bad for getting back out there... Even considering somehow getting to Maysville, KY over the February family day / reading week should anyone fancy a 9 hour road trip (and if that area is snow-free). It's going to be a loooong winter, my friend.  

Texas is snow free. Come on down and I’ll get you on a bunch of fossils to prep!!!

 

The bugs are really looking good sir.

[Kane]

53 minutes ago, Ptychodus04 said:

Texas is snow free. Come on down and I’ll get you on a bunch of fossils to prep!!!

 

The bugs are really looking good sir.

Thank you, sir! More practice is definitely helping!

 

I'd come down to the lone star state to help you prep, but one of your neighbours sent me this image of you and your new prep-shed (I think that's your assembled phytosaur oozing cyanoacrylate on some random muscular dude)  : 

 

[Ptychodus04]

2 hours ago, Kane said:

Thank you, sir! More practice is definitely helping!

 

I'd come down to the lone star state to help you prep, but one of your neighbours sent me this image of you and your new prep-shed (I think that's your assembled phytosaur oozing cyanoacrylate on some random muscular dude)  : 

 

Ha! Naw, I’m He-Man and he always wins in the end!

 

I wasn’t saying you can prep my stuff (although you’re welcome to). I was saying we’ll show you some world famous southern hospitality and take you to all the good local fossil sites. You don’t even have to wear a kilt. 

[ynot]

That is some sweet work Kane!

 

[Kane]

Before and after of Deb's b-day bug:

[Kane]

Same as above, different angles. Turned out a bit crushed on one side, but that's the vicissitudes of preservation for you.  

 

[Kane]

The "real" before and after: how she found it (April, 2018), and what it looks like now (January 2019):

 

 

[ynot]

On 1/18/2019 at 11:12 AM, Kane said:

and what it looks like now (January 2019):

Very nice job on that one!

[Kane]

5 hours ago, ynot said:

Very nice job on that one!

Thanks, Tony!  I better slow down, though... I'll be done my prep queue before winter is over at this rate!

[Malcolmt]

Keep banging them out at this rate and you';; be raiding my basement soon... Good job...

[ynot]

4 hours ago, Kane said:

I'll be done my prep queue

Speaking of which, did You ever prep the trilos I sent You?

[Kane]

8 minutes ago, ynot said:

Speaking of which, did You ever prep the trilos I sent You?

No, they seemed pretty clean... but now that you mention it, I should take another look to see if I can really make them pop!

[ynot]

22 minutes ago, Kane said:

I should take another look to see

Yes You should.

The little one was exposed from the bottom.

[Kane]

Went back to finish this big one. Its left side crushed and cutting in at a 45 degree angle (that part took several hours), and some uplifted crush damage at the glabella. No restoration. Matrix sculpted down. Width (trans.) from right genal to tucked in left genal ~45 mm, so definitely at the upper end of size for a Penn Dixie E. rana. 

[Ptychodus04]

Ok @Kane, you’re getting way too good at this prep thing!!! 

[Kane]

10 hours ago, Ptychodus04 said:

Ok @Kane, you’re getting way too good at this prep thing!!! 

Thanks, Kris.  I'm still much slower than some of the seasoned pros I know, whether that is on account of the tools, experience, or both. The next lesson will be learning how to sculpt and smooth matrix well with the tools I have on hand to remove all traces of scribe marks. My current combo of Paasche and sandpaper is not quite getting me to perfection.  Going back to fix my earlier prep attempts with whatever skills I've developed is oddly satisfying... And who is to say that I might not return to any of these pieces in the future to make them even better as skills and tools improve? I do find that, as confidence grows, more "risks/chances" can be taken -- to scribe down closer and deeper to result in a much better presented specimen in the end.

 

What I've also learned is that each specimen -- even belonging to the same species in the same strata -- is a unique problem/challenge to resolve. And, of course, the unorthodox Macgyvering solutions you come up with in the process (in one instance, while probing for a hypostome beneath the cephalon of one piece, I covered the dorsal side with a strip of duct tape to keep it in place in case it might pop off and get lost in the blast box debris or sucked up into the vacuum). Well, duct tape can pretty much do and fix anything...  

[steelhead9]

Very nice work! You may find that making a perfect, smooth matrix is actually harder than restoring the bugs themselves (hence the Moroccan tradition of finishing the matrix with scribe marks). I might suggest that a helpful tool for smoothing matrix (and a fairly inexpensive one) is a dremel with flex shaft attachment. I have found that varying grits of good sized, round diamond bits work well for matrix smoothing. Keep up the good work.

[Kane]

That’s a great idea! At present, I have the mini rotor and an engraver, but seem to have all the bigger shaft bits from tools I saved from going to the dump, so a flex shaft Dremel is on the shopping list, for sure!

[Fossildude19]

This came out awesome, Kane!   

You are really getting the hang of this, bud. 

[Ptychodus04]

On 1/26/2019 at 6:09 AM, Kane said:

Well, duct tape can pretty much do and fix anything...  

A famous and amazingly ingenious Canadian once called it “the handyman’s secret weapon”.

[Kane]

After 48 total hours of very challenging work, an 80 mm Asaphus lepidurus is complete. I've prepared this species before, but this one was the toughest on account of very sticky, hard, calcitic matrix glued right to the shell, which meant very slow and extremely careful scribing under very high magnification. At times, I was removing matrix by the grain!

 

This was the block when I received it with a bit of the bug poking out of the side. 

[Kane]

The trilobite itself is near the very bottom of the block, so the first step is to level the matrix down. The orientation of the trilobite makes a chisel the unlikely choice to remove the upper bulk. 

[Kane]

More scribing. This is where the matrix starts getting tricky. Plus, for added joy, it is also filled with tiny bits of other fauna, including a few pieces of trilobite very close to the shell, which makes you pause for a moment...

 

I'm using an ARO clone with the factory tip (all I have on hand in terms of scribe), so this is taking a wee bit longer and making me a wee bit more nervous about getting so close to the shell. 

[Kane]

Coming along. Searching for the other eye was a very nervous time as it would have been so easy to scribe it off in search of it. That top of the cephalon alone took about 8 hours of extremely careful scribing. This kind of calcitic matrix is not very amenable to abrasion...

[Kane]

Once scribing the contours and the covering matrix is complete, time to hit the stubborn gunk. I'm swapping constantly between a Paasche AECR with 18 ga dispensing needle, and grain-by-grain pin vise removal, all under very high magnification. Another 8ish hours. 

 

Final step was touch-ups and then matrix smoothing. What made the bug's left side a bit more challenging, angle-wise, was my wanting to keep the matrix intact there to function as a stand for a "sitting in a bowl" effect. 

 

I definitely could use a CP for bulk matrix, and a Micro-Jack for the wee details to cut down on the time. For all its inherent challenges, I'm glad it's done with minimal dings. This one is above average size for its species. Into the cabinet it goes, and time to rest my compressor and my scope-bleary eyes.