Fossil preparation powder

[M.Youssef]

Hi All

Can you help recommend an online store that sells powders fit for trilobites preparation?

Thank you

 Malek

[hadrosauridae]

1 hour ago, M.Youssef said:

Hi All

Can you help recommend an online store that sells powders fit for trilobites preparation?

Thank you

 Malek

 

That can be tricky.  Most common is baking soda, but if your specimen is in a really tough limestone, it can have trouble.  But bicarb is very easy to find. Some people use powdered limestone, but it can be very messy and harderder to source.  Some people use iron powder in tough matrix, but sourcing that is difficult and expensive.  

 

I would recommend manual prep to clear everything but tiny recesses and then try soda at higher pressures to see if it will clean the final remains.  IF that wont work, then try to source another.  

[M.Youssef]

42 minutes ago, hadrosauridae said:

 

That can be tricky.  Most common is baking soda, but if your specimen is in a really tough limestone, it can have trouble.  But bicarb is very easy to find. Some people use powdered limestone, but it can be very messy and harderder to source.  Some people use iron powder in tough matrix, but sourcing that is difficult and expensive.  

 

I would recommend manual prep to clear everything but tiny recesses and then try soda at higher pressures to see if it will clean the final remains.  IF that wont work, then try to source another.  

Thank you ! Now  I am using Dolomite powder 40 ųm . I am looking for a source of it and also can try another recommended powder , i prepare mainly Moroccan Devonian trilobites.

 

Best

[Kane]

Baking soda certainly won't touch Moroccan Devonian trilobites, so dolomite is best. You can start looking around for pottery supply stores that have dolomite. You might ask around more locally as any shipping to where you are for, say, a 20-50kg bag of dolomite might be prohibitively expensive. So although iron powder is slightly softer and more expensive, since it is more popular among European fossil preparators, the cost may balance out given shipping distance. 

[jpc]

dolomite is hard to find, if not impossible.  I tried to buy some in the USA a few months ago.  Not available from my usual sources... pottery supply places.  I am not sure what is happening in the dolomite market.  Maybe the Dolomites Mountains in Italy have been ground up for fossil prep and there is no more to be had. 

 

I had to go with dolomitic limestone, also from pottery places.  It is slightly different but I think it might work just as well.  We have only tested it at work, and not used it much yet.     

 

Where did you previously get your dolomite?