I Used a Steel Scratch Brush on a Cheap Mostly Unintact Oviraptor Egg: A Memoir

[aviform]

I bought a fairly cheap, mostly Unintact (half of an) Oviraptor egg a while ago. I didn't have the money for professional tools such as an air eraser or soda blaster, but I did have a steel scratch brush.

 

Here are some before/after pictures and a short description for posterity, or maybe as a good example of why you should get the expensive tools if you want to do a really good job.

 

I dipped the scratch brush in water to get the shell a bit damp but not wet. It was fairly effective at getting the red matrix off, and then I dabbed it with a microfiber cloth to prevent the water from seeping in.

 

Just getting it to where it is now took hours over a few weeks, and there is still a good deal of dirt inside the crevices of the shell where an air abrader could probably remove it, but which I won't attempt with a scratch brush because it would probably wind up polishing the shell well before it got to the remaining matrix.

 

I fear the matrix is lumpier than an air eraser would ever get a fossil, and inconsistent because it's got more matrix covering in some places than in others, particularly the edges, because a scratch brush is a lot more blunt than an air eraser would be.

 

Still, it's the time you spend on your Dinosaur Egg which makes your Dinosaur Egg important. I think that's how the saying goes.

 

Edited May 22 by aviform

[oilshale]

RIP

[aviform]

13 minutes ago, oilshale said:

RIP

Thank you for that valuable comment. However, I didn't make a mistake. I committed a crime. There's an important difference.

[oilshale]

I'm sure everyone who collects and prepares fossils has made the wrong decisions in their life: using unsuitable tools, putting the chisel exactly where it will cause the most damage, destroying the fossil with a well-aimed hammer blow or even hitting themselves in the foot with the pickaxe (I've been very lucky), forgetting the most important part of the fossil in the quarry and so on.
It can happen and you have to tick it off. You learn from things like that.

It's called "learning by doing". You don't want to know how many fossils I've already put to rest.

Edited May 22 by oilshale

[Ludwigia]

Reminds me of the time I tried to remove a stubborn stain from my shirt collar with a sponge scrubber and before I knew it I had rubbed a big hole in it. My wife was not amused.

[Yoda]

I have very limited experience in prepping fossils 

But one idea that I have seen fairly often on this forum if one is inexperienced and working on a fossil.

Start on a small part of it that isn't the main focus and then progress really slowly. So if one is making a bit of a mess of it, the damage is not in an obvious place. And one can stop before ruining the whole thing. 

[aviform]

1 hour ago, Yoda said:

I have very limited experience in prepping fossils 

But one idea that I have seen fairly often on this forum if one is inexperienced and working on a fossil.

Start on a small part of it that isn't the main focus and then progress really slowly. So if one is making a bit of a mess of it, the damage is not in an obvious place. And one can stop before ruining the whole thing. 

I wouldn't go so far as to say the whole thing is ruined. It's lumpier than I would like it to be, but I can see a lot more of the shell now where it was barely visible before. 

[Yoda]

3 minutes ago, aviform said:

I wouldn't go so far as to say the whole thing is ruined. It's lumpier than I would like it to be, but I can see a lot more of the shell now where it was barely visible before. 

I didn't say yours was ruined 

It was meant in general terms 

[jpc]

I ask this as a guy who has a full lab setup and been doing this for 30 years... what is a scratch brush?  And an air eraser?  

 

 

[Fin Lover]

47 minutes ago, jpc said:

I ask this as a guy who has a full lab setup and been doing this for 30 years... what is a scratch brush?  And an air eraser?  

 

 

My guess is a wire brush.  And maybe air abrasion tool that auto correct changed?

[jpc]

5 hours ago, Fin Lover said:

My guess is a wire brush.  And maybe air abrasion tool that auto correct changed?

That is my guess too, but.....

[oilshale]

On 5/23/2024 at 9:00 PM, jpc said:

I ask this as a guy who has a full lab setup and been doing this for 30 years... what is a scratch brush?  And an air eraser?  

 

 

 

Paasche air eraser (and similar toys..)

Edited May 25 by oilshale