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Preparing a large Choffatia ammonite with attachments


Ludwigia

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One of my customers is keeping me quite busy lately. Last week he brought me among other things a relatively large, 22cm. diameter Callovian Choffatia ammonite from the Wutach Valley with another few smaller ones plus a belemnite attached. He asked me to send him play-by-play photos, which I did, so I figured I might just as well show them to you guys as well. Here are pics of both sides in the raw.

 

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As you can probably tell, it was extracted in 3 pieces which he glued back together. You can barely see the belemnite on the right in the middle of the first photo and the smaller ammos are at the bottom right in the second one. First step was to remove as much matrix as possible with the stylus, but soon after I started, the bit with the ammonites and the end of the living chamber popped off at a hairline crack, so I set them aside for reglueing at a later point.

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Here's how both sides looked after a few hours with the stylus and also after glueing the above mentioned pieces back on.

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Greetings from the Lake of Constance. Roger

http://www.steinkern.de/

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The next step was to firstly remove as much matrix as possible with the air abrader in order to see what kind of shape the ribs were in. I started with the side with the belemnite, which turned out to have quite a bit in the way of a serpula, small oysters and iron oolites clinging to the shell.

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So I had to return to the fine stylus, carefully remove the excess debris and then return to the abrader for a final once-over.

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Then I tackled the side with the ammonites, first the small ones.

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The little one at the top turned out to be a dud, so I removed it and then abraded the rest of the ammonite. This must have been the side laying face-down in the sediment, since there were no epizoans on it.

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Greetings from the Lake of Constance. Roger

http://www.steinkern.de/

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As you can see, there are quite a few gaps and cracks in it, so the next step was to pull out the Apoxie Sculpt, knead the 2 components together and get to work.

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Greetings from the Lake of Constance. Roger

http://www.steinkern.de/

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I then smeared some stone meal on it with a paint brush and waited the few hours for it to harden. Then I finished off with water paints and a final coat of Rember beeswax finish. Here's the end result. The whole process took about 10 hours to complete.

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Greetings from the Lake of Constance. Roger

http://www.steinkern.de/

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Wonderful work, Roger. :wub:

I love seeing prepping from start to finish, amazing. 

Life's Good!

Tortoise Friend.

MOTM.png.61350469b02f439fd4d5d77c2c69da85.png.a47e14d65deb3f8b242019b3a81d8160-1.png.60b8b8c07f6fa194511f8b7cfb7cc190.png

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5 minutes ago, Tidgy's Dad said:

Wonderful work, Roger. :wub:

I love seeing prepping from start to finish, amazing. 

Thanks Adam :) I'm happy with this one.

 

Greetings from the Lake of Constance. Roger

http://www.steinkern.de/

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 Phenomenal association piece, Roger! 

I like the hitch-hikers!

Thanks for posting this.  :) 

    Tim    -  VETERAN SHALE SPLITTER

   MOTM.png.61350469b02f439fd4d5d77c2c69da85.png      PaleoPartner.png.30c01982e09b0cc0b7d9d6a7a21f56c6.png.a600039856933851eeea617ca3f2d15f.png     Postmaster1.jpg.900efa599049929531fa81981f028e24.jpg    VFOTM.png.f1b09c78bf88298b009b0da14ef44cf0.png  VFOTM  --- APRIL - 2015  

__________________________________________________
"In every walk with nature one receives far more than he seeks."

John Muir ~ ~ ~ ~   ><))))( *>  About Me      

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You are keeping the Remberfluat folks an essential business!

Grüße,

Daniel A. Wöhr aus Südtexas

"To the motivated go the spoils."

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Great piece and great job on the prep\restoration as usual! Thanks for sharing Roger! :) 

The good thing about science is that it's true whether or not you believe in it.  -Neil deGrasse Tyson

 

Everyone you will ever meet knows something you don't. -Bill Nye (The Science Guy)

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10 hours ago, Fossildude19 said:

 Phenomenal association piece, Roger! 

I like the hitch-hikers!

Thanks for posting this.  :) 

 

9 hours ago, Ruger9a said:

Impressive work!

 

6 hours ago, grandpa said:

True artwork!:drool:

 

25 minutes ago, FossilNerd said:

Great piece and great job on the prep\restoration as usual! Thanks for sharing Roger! :) 

Thanks for the laurels, everyone :)

 

5 hours ago, Uncle Siphuncle said:

You are keeping the Remberfluat folks an essential business!

You said it! :D

 

Greetings from the Lake of Constance. Roger

http://www.steinkern.de/

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4 minutes ago, Ptychodus04 said:

Top quality prepping as is usual for you. This one is especially beautiful!

Thanks. The customer was pleased with it too.

 

Greetings from the Lake of Constance. Roger

http://www.steinkern.de/

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  Really neat to see the step by step process you do.  Also purty dang neat to see the end results!  You do some mighty fine work my friend. 

 

RB

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12 minutes ago, RJB said:

  Really neat to see the step by step process you do.  Also purty dang neat to see the end results!  You do some mighty fine work my friend. 

 

RB

:)

 

Greetings from the Lake of Constance. Roger

http://www.steinkern.de/

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Hey Roger.  Another really cool fossil.  Here is a question for you or the troops.

 

There is a European haramyid (early mammal) named Paulchoffatia, and now you show us this Choffatia ammonite.  How did one guy (I am assuming they have the same namesake) get a mammal AND an ammonite named after him?  Who is Paul Choffat?  I know, I could google it, but that's no fun.  

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10 hours ago, jpc said:

Hey Roger.  Another really cool fossil.  Here is a question for you or the troops.

 

There is a European haramyid (early mammal) named Paulchoffatia, and now you show us this Choffatia ammonite.  How did one guy (I am assuming they have the same namesake) get a mammal AND an ammonite named after him?  Who is Paul Choffat?  I know, I could google it, but that's no fun.  

He was a Swiss geologist of the 19th century who lived in Portugal and became THE pioneering specialist for Portugese paleontology and geology. There is also a typical Moroccan ammonite called Choffaticeras.

 

Greetings from the Lake of Constance. Roger

http://www.steinkern.de/

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Absolute quality! What specific sculpting material are you using may I ask? Trying to find something worthwhile for a project of my own. 

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1 hour ago, DanJeavs said:

Absolute quality! What specific sculpting material are you using may I ask? Trying to find something worthwhile for a project of my own. 

I already mentioned it above. It's called Apoxie Sculpt. Comes in various colors and you have at least a good hour to form it before it really starts to set and it can be filed and whittled after it's hardened. I can recommend it.

 

Greetings from the Lake of Constance. Roger

http://www.steinkern.de/

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6 hours ago, Ludwigia said:

He was a Swiss geologist of the 19th century who lived in Portugal and became THE pioneering specialist for Portugese paleontology and geology. There is also a typical Moroccan ammonite called Choffaticeras.

Thanks.  As a Swiss American, I will put this in my mental notes.  

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  • 1 month later...

Wow! Beautiful work and gives me something to aspire too. I am a dentist and appreciate the details in your preparation.

Bob

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3 hours ago, AK hiker said:

Wow! Beautiful work and gives me something to aspire too. I am a dentist and appreciate the details in your preparation.

Bob

Thanks. I'm sure that with your experience you would also be able to do a very good job with the proper instruments. One of the best preparers I know is a goldsmith by trade.

 

Greetings from the Lake of Constance. Roger

http://www.steinkern.de/

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