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Ptychodus04’s Fossil Fish Prepapalooza


Ptychodus04

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50 minutes ago, Ptychodus04 said:

Not if they are full of a bunch of thorny roses!!!

That's why thornless roses exist. :thumbsu:

Accomplishing the impossible means only that the boss will add it to your regular duties.

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On 9/17/2020 at 2:56 PM, daves64 said:

That's why thornless roses exist. :thumbsu:

That explains it. I thought it was for people who are too thin skinned for real roses.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Well, I finally got my backlog of contract preps finished and got an order for 50 Green River fish. So, I’m back prepping for a contract but doing my fish at the same time... win/win.

 

Here’s a time lapse of what I thought was a small Diplomystus but turned out to be a monster Knightia with quite a headache. He must have watched the “debate” last night. My head did the same thing.

 

VIDEO

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1 hour ago, Phevo said:

Thanks for the timelapse, it was nice to see how close you go to the fish before starting the abrading.

 

 

If I start to see the tops of the ribs poking out (at 10x through the microscope) I don’t go any deeper with the scribe. Once you find the micro-layer above the bone layer, it is pretty easy to scribe down to it without touching the bones.

 

It can’t be done without at least 10x magnification. Anything less and you can’t see the micro-layers.

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Very cool fish, it has a nice contrast to the surrounding rock.

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“If fossils are not "boggling" your mind then you are simply not doing it right” -Ken (digit)

"No fossil is garbage, it´s just not completely preserved” -Franz (FranzBernhard)

"With hammer in hand, the open horizon of time, and dear friends by my side, what can we not accomplish together?" -Kane (Kane)

"We are in a way conquering time, reuniting members of a long lost family" -Quincy (Opabinia Blues)

"I loved reading the trip reports, I loved the sharing, I loved the educational aspect, I loved the humor. It felt like home. It still does" -Mike (Pagurus)

“The best deal I ever got was getting accepted as a member on The Fossil Forum. Not only got an invaluable pool of knowledge, but gained a loving family as well.” -Doren (caldigger)

"it really is nice, to visit the oasis that is TFF" -Tim (fossildude19)

"Life's Good! -Adam (Tidgy's Dad)

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20 hours ago, Ptychodus04 said:

a monster Knightia with quite a headache.

Looks like some of the headaches I get. :shakehead:

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Accomplishing the impossible means only that the boss will add it to your regular duties.

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On 9/30/2020 at 1:07 PM, Ptychodus04 said:

 He must have watched the “debate” last night. My head did the same thing.

I only lasted about 7 minutes.  Dont watch much news anymore.  Life is too short for that

 

RB

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Some don’t turn out as well as we would like. This was a tough little fish. The matrix was so soft and the fish so brittle that I had to abrade at 10psi and it still didn’t come out so bueno.

 

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On 9/14/2020 at 9:50 AM, Ptychodus04 said:

I finally got around to hanging up some of my fish. Mostly, it is because my wife was about to throw me out of the house if I didn’t get them hung up. :heartylaugh:
 

The larger plate is hung on 1/4” square steel rod. I was able to heat it and bend it around the fish with my induction forge because rock is not affected by magnetic induction. Red hot metal and rock cool to the touch next to each other!

 

 

 

 

How did you fix the rod to the wall? do you mount them and then slide fish into them?

Thinking of doing something similar for mine, i've mostly just been using french cleats.

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5 minutes ago, brad2274 said:

How did you fix the rod to the wall? do you mount them and then slide fish into them?

Thinking of doing something similar for mine, i've mostly just been using french cleats.

I forged the bottom bend, then brazed a support rod across the back and then did a rough heat and bend in the forge for the top until the fish could slide in. Then, I used the induction forge to heat the top and bend it tighter. They are mounted to the wall with heavy duty picture hanger hooks. 40# capacity for the smaller fish and 100# For the larger plate.

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17 hours ago, Ptychodus04 said:

Some don’t turn out as well as we would like. This was a tough little fish. The matrix was so soft and the fish so brittle that I had to abrade at 10psi and it still didn’t come out so bueno.

That's bueno in my book. In january I bought a green river slab that I could carve out a fish either Knightia or Diploymstus, and it looks very no bueno, the bones were thin as paper in some parts and I went searching all over the plate because the bones kept leading me to different areas and it just doesn't look like it was preserved very well and then that with my lack of experience makes a no Bueno fish

“If fossils are not "boggling" your mind then you are simply not doing it right” -Ken (digit)

"No fossil is garbage, it´s just not completely preserved” -Franz (FranzBernhard)

"With hammer in hand, the open horizon of time, and dear friends by my side, what can we not accomplish together?" -Kane (Kane)

"We are in a way conquering time, reuniting members of a long lost family" -Quincy (Opabinia Blues)

"I loved reading the trip reports, I loved the sharing, I loved the educational aspect, I loved the humor. It felt like home. It still does" -Mike (Pagurus)

“The best deal I ever got was getting accepted as a member on The Fossil Forum. Not only got an invaluable pool of knowledge, but gained a loving family as well.” -Doren (caldigger)

"it really is nice, to visit the oasis that is TFF" -Tim (fossildude19)

"Life's Good! -Adam (Tidgy's Dad)

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Sometimes they’re really a mess. This one was well preserved but super soft. Almost unpreppable. After you’ve prepped enough of these, you really start to high grade what you’re willing to keep. :DOH:

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3 hours ago, Ptychodus04 said:

Sometimes they’re really a mess. This one was well preserved but super soft. Almost unpreppable. After you’ve prepped enough of these, you really start to high grade what you’re willing to keep. :DOH:

Yes, I believe you've talked about this before in this thread. I find it fascinating, once a prepper works on hundreds of specimens a year, spending hours on each, they get pretty picky about what's worth spending time on. We see this bias a fair bit on the forum, whether it's RB's crabs or Kane's trilos. It can be mind boggling to us beginners to the world of prep, but I'd certainly imagine after the numbers move into the triple digits those B grades aren't worth the 4 hours of work it might take to uncover.

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9 hours ago, Ptychodus04 said:

This one was well preserved but super soft. Almost unpreppable

Then it’s a good thing a maestro like you were working on it! I think it looks pretty good!

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8 hours ago, Huntonia said:

I'd certainly imagine after the numbers move into the triple digits those B grades aren't worth the 4 hours of work it might take to uncover.

Yep. Unfortunately, you often don’t know it’s not worth it until you’ve invested more time than it deserves. :DOH:

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I must like wasting my time. This nasty little Knightia took about 3 hours to prep.:default_faint:
 

E98D91F1-CE44-4017-B834-4637F22FEB8D.thumb.jpeg.8e2e2de37b9d827a44a457b233e696ef.jpeg
 

On the bright side, I started a Cockerelites that has a lot of promise. :fingerscrossed:

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1 hour ago, Ptychodus04 said:

I must like wasting my time. 
 

Keeping your skills sharp on rotten fish isn't a waste of time, it's merely practice for the good ones. :thumbsu:

Accomplishing the impossible means only that the boss will add it to your regular duties.

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2 hours ago, Ptychodus04 said:

This nasty little Knightia

Nah! That’s an interesting knightia!

2 hours ago, Ptychodus04 said:

I started a Cockerelites

Hope it lives up to your expectations! I Can’t wait to see the finished specimen. I think that’s one of my favorite type fish and I hope to prep one one day!

( by the same token the only fish I’ve prepped so far are knightias and Diplomystus so there’s a lot on my hope to prep list one day!:heartylaugh:)

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9 hours ago, Randyw said:

I think that’s one of my favorite type fish and I hope to prep one one day!

I’ll toss one in your pile of prep fish. I came home with around 20 Cockerelites this year.

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Here’s the Cockerelites that I’m hopeful for. The second dorsal fin is a mess but so far, that’s my only complaint. With the pressure way down and using a shallow angle, the matrix is coming off well with the abrasive. This is about 3 hours of scribing and abrasive combined.

 

The coolest thing about this fish is that it’s mouth is wide open. I don’t see that very often.

 

CC9E0376-7F59-4A99-B92E-7F134B525C5E.thumb.jpeg.399a384eeecc3e5adedd448e5dd064a2.jpeg

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