Accessories for Air Scribe?

[Joe Gandalf]

Apologies if anyone has seen this before: I originally posted in another, older topic, but got no answer. I'm reposting as a new topic...

(Since the original post, I have sourced a rebuild kit, anvil & both chisels at a decent price.)

 

I found this forum while searching for information on an air scribe. A few months ago I found a CP9361 on a table at our local flea market. The guy mostly cleans out barns and sells what goodies he finds; his prices usually are rather reasonable, but this scribe cost me a whopping $4.00! So hooray! (And it is fully operational.) I had been using an old Burgess engraver to experiment with, but my tool selection just took a major jump upwards.

 

My question is: do most preparators simply use the scribe point, or is there an advantage to adding the anvil/chisel to the tool? If so, is there a preference for the round point or the flat 1/4" chisel?

 

I mostly play with thin sections and petrographic microscopes, but I have recently become very interested in fossils from the Permian and earlier. I hope to gain some degree of skill in preparing these materials.

 

Thanks to all.

[Mark Kmiecik]

Size and shape of the tool preferred depends on the fossil and matrix material. There is no one-size-fits-all. This is something that also depends on your style of prep and how aggressive you can get without harming the specimen. It is a "feel" for what you're doing as opposed to a carved-in-stone rule.

[Ptychodus04]

The answer to the point or chisel question is yes.  I have a scribe with a chisel tip that is used for bulk matrix removal. The pointed styli are for closer work. 

 

The rounded stock stylus for the CP scribe is not optimal as a sharper point cuts cleaner. For the $4 investment, you could easily do the Paleo Tools upgrade and put the ME9100 front end and stylus (cost is somewhere around $100) and still be way better off than the rest of us.

 

You’ll need a relatively large compressor to drive that CP scribe.