Ptychodus04’s Fossil Fish Prepapalooza

[piranha]

6 hours ago, Top Trilo said:

Both fish and leaves are known from the great river formation, none of which are rare but why is there never an association of a fish and a leaf?

 

This one is from my collection: a couple of Knightia playing hide and seek with a piece of driftwood.

[Huntonia]

On 7/29/2019 at 1:24 AM, Ptychodus04 said:

I finished up this nice Knightia/fly/banana leaf plate yesterday. 

 

 

On 7/27/2019 at 2:55 PM, Ptychodus04 said:

 

 

10 hours ago, Top Trilo said:

why is there never an association of a fish and a leaf?

There's also these two associations from page 2 of this thread 

[Ptychodus04]

13 hours ago, Huntonia said:

 

 

There's also these two associations from page 2 of this thread 

I guess I should read my own thread every now and again.

 

I started working on the bottom cap piece with the flower bud and fish last night and I thought, "I'll never complain about an 18" Layer prep again." Man, this stuff is tough to prep. The rock is hard and sticky to the bones. it is dark gray, so there's little contrast between matrix and bone. Minimum pressure on the abrasive is 50 PSI (I'm running at 60 PSI right now), and did I mention it is sticky??? 2 hours got me roughly 1 square inch prepped!

 

The trade off is typically very well preserved fossils. It's worth the prep if you're doing it for yourself.

[daves64]

5 hours ago, Ptychodus04 said:

 2 hours got me roughly 1 square inch prepped!

Soooo...... not likely to be a gift to someone I take it? 

[Ptychodus04]

13 minutes ago, daves64 said:

Soooo...... not likely to be a gift to someone I take it? 

It will most certainly be going on my wall. It's going to be awesome. The reed with the bud head on it looks really cool and the fish is placed well. The only thing that will keep it off the wall is if the fish turns out to be snarge.

[Randyw]

2 hours ago, Ptychodus04 said:

It will most certainly be going on my wall. It's going to be awesome. The reed with the bud head on it looks really cool and the fish is placed well. The only thing that will keep it off the wall is if the fish turns out to be snarge.

From the sounds of it it would be wall worthy even if the fish was average! Can’t wait to see it. 

[Ptychodus04]

15 hours ago, Randyw said:

From the sounds of it it would be wall worthy even if the fish was average! Can’t wait to see it. 

What can I say? I’m a fish snob. 

[RJB]

23 hours ago, Ptychodus04 said:

 "I'll never complain about an 18" Layer prep again." Man, this stuff is tough to prep. The rock is hard and sticky to the bones. it is dark gray, so there's little contrast between matrix and bone. Minimum pressure on the abrasive is 50 PSI (I'm running at 60 PSI right now), and did I mention it is sticky???

  I find that if one slants their mouth a little to the North and keep the left eye closed it helps the prep go a bit easier and smoother. 

 

RB

[Ptychodus04]

1 hour ago, RJB said:

  I find that if one slants their mouth a little to the North and keep the left eye closed it helps the prep go a bit easier and smoother. 

 

RB

 I can't do either of these. I'm using a stereo microscope so both eyes are open and I'm facing south at my cabinet... Looks like I'm out of luck!!!!!

[daves64]

2 hours ago, Ptychodus04 said:

 I can't do either of these. I'm using a stereo microscope so both eyes are open and I'm facing south at my cabinet... Looks like I'm out of luck!!!!!

Put a pic of yourself in that pose inside the cabinet on the back wall. Maybe it will help. Or.... turn your cabinet around and grow a 3rd eye.. 

[Ptychodus04]

1 hour ago, daves64 said:

Put a pic of yourself in that pose inside the cabinet on the back wall. Maybe it will help. Or.... turn your cabinet around and grow a 3rd eye.. 

Option 1 is significantly more feasible.

[Ptychodus04]

This is an hour of painstaking prep on the bottom cap fish/reed slab. VIDEO It looks to be a medium sized Knightia. I would have preferred it be something rarer but it looks to be excellently preserved.

[Ludwigia]

Hey Kris. Could you please post your video directly? I don't want them to eat my cookies.

[Ptychodus04]

18 minutes ago, Ludwigia said:

Hey Kris. Could you please post your video directly? I don't want them to eat my cookies.

I’ll be happy to eat your cookies... as long as they aren’t coconut.  I forget that the file size limit went away with the update to the site.
 

Looking back at my time stamps from the prep, this is closer to 2 hours of prep.

 

Edited April 11, 2021 by Ptychodus04

[Randyw]

Oh! I see! You’re using mechanical prep to get close then the air abrasive to complete? That’s very helpful!

[Ptychodus04]

2 hours ago, Randyw said:

Oh! I see! You’re using mechanical prep to get close then the air abrasive to complete? That’s very helpful!

Yep. It would take forever to prep it with only abrasive. Some of the 18” and Sandwich Bed fish will prep with abrasive only if they split with the fish very close to the surface.

 

I cleaned out the pile of detritus in my lab today (pretty much wiped me out due to Covid vaccine side effects) and found a couple fish that I forgot I had. 

 

One of them is a nice double that should prep well with abrasive only. It is in a super hard blue-gray rock that is even harder than the bottom cap. The fish are usually jet black in this rock.

[Randyw]

3 hours ago, Ptychodus04 said:

One of them is a nice double that should prep well with abrasive only. It is in a super hard blue-gray rock that is even harder than the bottom cap. The fish are usually jet black in this rock.

Oooooo can’t wait to see it when you get it done!

I get my second Covid shot Sunday. I’m both excited and nervous about it!

[Ptychodus04]

10 hours ago, Randyw said:

Oooooo can’t wait to see it when you get it done!

I get my second Covid shot Sunday. I’m both excited and nervous about it!

This thing is kicking my rear ever so slightly. Day 0 was fine with some soreness in the injection arm and some tossing and turning during the night. Day 2 started with malaise and body aches and went downhill fast. I carried a fever all day along with intense malaise, nausea, and pain. Day 3 saw marked improvement with reduced nausea and lingering fatigue. Day 4 has started with the feeling that one has the day after a bout with the flu. 
 

Generally speaking, it wasn’t an experience I would recommend but it wasn’t as bad as getting COVID. 

 

Best of luck to you.

[Ptychodus04]

After untold hours, the Knightia and reed plate is finished. Boy, am I glad to have this one behind me. At least it turned out nicely!!!

[Randyw]

Looks good!

man you weren’t kidding about that second Covid shot! It’s kicking my butt! Still worth it though!

[Ptychodus04]

1 hour ago, Randyw said:

Looks good!

man you weren’t kidding about that second Covid shot! It’s kicking my butt! Still worth it though!

Yep. It took me 4 days to feel normal again.

[Top Trilo]

Great job again, while this fish isn't very small it looks 3-4 inches so smaller than average and that got me wondering, what's the smallest fish you've prepped?

[snolly50]

4 hours ago, Ptychodus04 said:

It took me 4 days to feel normal again.

 

Like you know how that feels!

 

Glad you're feeling better. Mine was a breeze compared to your description. The only problem I ever had was with a flu shot year ago. The infection control nurse where I worked kind of "insisted" that we get one every year. I woke up about an hour after going to bed for a night long bout of alternating chills and fever. I finally fell asleep, exhausted, around dawn. I woke up a couple hours later and felt just fine! It was really weird. Never had any problem beyond injection site soreness since.

[Ptychodus04]

1 hour ago, snolly50 said:

 

Like you know how that feels!

 

Glad you're feeling better. Mine was a breeze compared to your description. The only problem I ever had was with a flu shot year ago. The infection control nurse where I worked kind of "insisted" that we get one every year. I woke up about an hour after going to bed for a night long bout of alternating chills and fever. I finally fell asleep, exhausted, around dawn. I woke up a couple hours later and felt just fine! It was really weird. Never had any problem beyond injection site soreness since.

Normal for me... 

[Ptychodus04]

It's been a while since I posted a fish prep here, not because I'm not prepping fish. Rather, an apathy for taking a bunch of photos of fish. I'm prepping more than ever now that I'm prepping for one of the quarries in Kemmerer. I'm averaging around 20 hours a week prepping on top of my regular full-time job.

 

I wrapped up this Diplomystus/Knightia prep last night. The Knightia was a real bonus as it wasn't visible close to the surface. I only found it because I don't wantonly blow through the overlying matrix on a known specimen. The scales were a bit thin and soft and the pectoral fin is displaced but otherwise an immaculate specimen.