Kane's Bug Preps

[FossilNerd]

Nice work as always. I see you are sneaking in time at the bench before the school year takes off. Good on ya! 
 

P.S. Too bad about the glabella mishap on the Asaphus!

[Top Trilo]

Nice work on the trilo trio!

 

You know you've gotten picky when you call a complete Asaphus junk. The fact that the one and only Kane started prepping it, blew its mind!

[Ptychodus04]

On 9/7/2022 at 3:55 PM, Kane said:

Despite using the gentlest care with the finest scribe, catastrophe on the glabella. So now it's pretty much junk.  

I’ve been here before my friend. It’s a sad place that is unfortunately part of the game. I’ve ruined my share of specimens in the past.  

[RJB]

On 9/7/2022 at 2:55 PM, Kane said:

 Despite using the gentlest care with the finest scribe, catastrophe on the glabella. So now it's pretty much junk.  

You are not alone my friend.  Chin up and keep on a preppin.  Thats the only way to win this game.

 

RB

[Kane]

Thanks for the kind and supportive words, gents.  I would be more upset (with myself) if it was simply just a goof-up with my technique and being hasty, but I didn't have any indication that this crack would be running underneath the matrix on a much thinner than usual shell (at least for this type of bug). I stuck a piece of tape on the delicate part and continued on, but a spot check with abrasion also said the shell is far too thin and pitted, halfway to steinkern. Sometimes it is just the nature of poor preservation, but at least I can confirm it is just a bad specimen not even worth doing resto on (and the prospect of trying to do paint-matching is its own bucket of expletives!). 

 

So I can definitively toss it in the giveaway box for the next time I get a fossil collecting visitor to the house for those who just want an example of the genus. 

[Kane]

Not yet done, but getting very close. I am in the process of trying to level up my prep work by taking on the tall stalk-eyed Asaphus kowalewskii. Like so many of my prep pieces, this one has many problems, not least of which include sticky calcite and other tough fossil bits adhering to very inconveniently delicate areas on the trilobite. 

 

The first step was to glue the original pieces together. Here's how I received it:

[Kane]

So begins the long and careful scribing, mostly with my finest tool, the Pferd. Due to those fossil parts mentioned above, it was not going to be a matter of just popping off matrix pieces for a nice clean shell; no, it was going to be the grain by grain process, with a bit of abrasion (where that was possible, given that the dolomite is a bit softer than the tough calcitic bits, which need to be kiss-scribed). 

 

The eyes are being left until the end. My intention was to prep it with the eyes attached, but many preparers who deal with this species tend to intentionally break them off to cut down on prep time, and then reattach once the rest of the trilobite is done.

[Kane]

Much of the bulk matrix around the main body is done, but now comes the delicate process of working around the eyes.

[Kane]

And... minor "catastrophe." One of the eyes did come off even from the most gentle of vibration from the scribe. I'd avoided it for some time by never "popping" matrix off, but grinding it slowly. Still, physics was not on my side.

 

But this is not the end of the prep. In fact, it allows me to prep the eye separately, while also fortifying the eye stalk using the glue and scratch method @jpc explains rather well. In a nutshell, place a drop of super glue on a piece of rough (not glossy) cardboard, use a sewing needle, get a very tiny bit of glue, and apply it to the area. This prevents getting glue gooped all over the matrix, which would be a pain in the derriere. I took the liberty of fortifying the other eye stalk because I could see two cracks that would definitely result in shattering in a few pieces. No doubt, the other eye stalk will likely come off as well, but at least it will be in one piece. 

 

Once all that rigmarole is done, and the main body is completely cleaned up, I can reattach the eye(s) for a matrix-free Asaphus kowalewskii.

 

Watch this space.  

[FossilDAWG]

  

Don

[jpc]

Kane... are you familiar with carbowax.  You need to learn about it. 

http://preparation.paleo.amnh.org/assets/Cavigelli2009.pdf

 

Anyone working on delicate fossils should give this a looksee.  Yes, this is written by me.  It is not my invention but I did write this How To primer.  And it is much easy to find nowadays than when I wrote it... Miralax.

[Kane]

Thanks, JP! I had no idea about this product, or assumed it was just for bone work. Added to my prep lab shopping list!

[Ptychodus04]

I agree with @jpc this stuff will be your new best friend.

[jpc]

Yup... I love it for small delicate stuff.

 

[fossilhunter21]

Looking good, Kane! I really enjoy seeing trilobites that have spines or really long eye stalks. I am sure that they are not the easiest to prep. 

 

-Micah

 

 

Edited September 26, 2022 by fossilhunter21

[Kane]

The previous specimen is coming along a bit better, but I have put it aside for now because... shiny things. 

 

While going through some local glacial erratics, there is one source rock I keep an eye out for. There are no outcrops of this lithology anywhere I know of, and seems only to appear in erratics. It is also customarily quite blank, and brutally hard material. Typically, it may contain a few bivalves, nautiloids, and brachs, but at other times it has nothing more than trilobites alone. The problem is that this type of rock has no bedding planes, and tends to shatter -- usually in a heartbreaking fashion through a trilobite.  

 

These rocks are about the same age as those found at Penn Dixie, but with a difference: the trilobites tend to be much larger and never compressed. It is like they were just suspended in mud from some sudden abrution. It is always something significant to find complete Eldredgeops rana in my area. 

 

This prep will have taken me 10 hours. Unlike a Penn Dixie bug with nice separation, these are set in hard material akin to that found in the Devonian of Morocco. It is also fairly resistant to dolomite abrasion, the matrix gets "sticky," and I had to scribe the whole thing bit by agonizing bit.  

 

It was also set in a fairly thick slab. Trimming it in the field is a big no-no with these rocks as Murphy's Law always finds a way of breaking the bug. Initial state:

[Kane]

This is going to be murder on the tools. My big CP was struggling! At a certain point, it became ridiculously awkward moving this around in my box trying to get the proper angles, so I needed to do some trimming down. Without a rock saw, I used the angle grinder, and that took some effort. Let's just say my relief cuts needed relief cuts.  

 

I was pondering whether to free it completely, or pedestal it -- a decision for later.

[Kane]

At this stage, I am on the home stretch. The eye came out quite nicely, but there were a few very sticky-stubborn places left, and I needed to keep switching between the big scribe and the very fine scribe. 

[Kane]

A few mishaps along the way I was able to recoup from, and I went with the decision to pedestal the trilobite. Here is the final result, with both eyes exposed (very tricky to do in such a cramped spot). It measures just shy of 3 inches on the roll, which was a bit bigger than I initially thought. There is still a wee bit of matrix, but this was almost entirely scribed given the resistance to abrasion. 

[Tidgy's Dad]

Very nice indeed.

[Fossildude19]

Masterpiece!  Well done, Kane!

[piranha]

 

[Top Trilo]

Amazing Kane! Look at those eyes!

[Ludwigia]

Nice one!

[Denis Arcand]

It was fast, I'm impressed with your speed, skill and of course the end result

 

Well done!