Green River fish preps

[jpc]

This split fish material saws very nicely with a regular old hand saw.  Do not use a water cooled saw.  I have one I got at a pawn shop for a few bucks that I labeled "for fossil fish only".  If you saw through about 2/3 of the plate, you can snap the excess off by placing the specimen on the edge of the table with the junk excess hanging over the edge, and the saw cut along the edge, and your fish on the table.  Then give the overhanging excess a gentle karate chop whilc leaning on the fishy part.  I saw mine from the back so that the broken edge of the rock looks more natural than a straight  line saw cut.  

[Ptychodus04]

@Alex S. well done!

 

The matrix is so soft that it cuts very easily. I use a tile saw without water. There’s no issue with blade damage.

 

Mark where you want to cut with a pencil and a straight edge. I prefer to have the fish display as if they are swimming up when possible.

 

Cover your specimen with painters tape to avoid getting it excessively dusty and cut away with the dry saw.

[Alex S.]

Thanks @jpc and @Ptychodus04 both are great advice. Some plates I have won't fit in my tile saw (this one might not). I thought water would be a bad idea glad I was right. 

[Fossildude19]

I have had great success with carbide encrusted hacksaw blades.

 

I got mine from Harbor Freight, but they don't appear to carry them any longer.   

[Alex S.]

Smart! Luckily I have more carbide saw blades of all types than I can shake a stick at. Lathe and plaster chews up carbide and spots it out after a couple cuts so I have a bunch for my house reno.

[Ptychodus04]

I use a 4.5" thin kerf masonry cutting wheel on my angle grinder for trimming larger stuff. 

 

Hand cutting is too much effort. 

[Alex S.]

Good advice. I'll probably end up doing a mixture as it's a rather thick slab. Then it comes down to backing and using a French cleat which fortunately there is a plethora helpful of info on from @RJB.

[Brian James Maguire]

Oh that is a nice fossil! Well done

[jpc]

Painter's tape on the fish??!!  I hope it is vinaced or otherwise coated before you do this.  (I do not coat mine).   Seems the tape would pull half of the fish off when you remove it.  

[Randyw]

9 hours ago, Fossildude19 said:

I have had great success with carbide encrusted hacksaw blades.

I use those and they work great!

[Randyw]

@Ptychodus04 are we sure this is a mio? The dorsal and anal fin doesn’t look quite right to me.. not disagreeing but questioning…

[Ptychodus04]

13 hours ago, jpc said:

Painter's tape on the fish??!!  I hope it is vinaced or otherwise coated before you do this.  (I do not coat mine).   Seems the tape would pull half of the fish off when you remove it.  

I put it tightly over the surface of the matrix so it doesn’t actually touch the fish if it doesn’t have any Paraloid on it. 
 

That being said, I’m a member of the “all fossil bones require stabilization” school of preparation.

[Ptychodus04]

12 hours ago, Randyw said:

@Ptychodus04 are we sure this is a mio? The dorsal and anal fin doesn’t look quite right to me.. not disagreeing but questioning…

Definitely a Mioplosus. The fins are in the right spots. They probably just look wrong due to preservation.

[Randyw]

54 minutes ago, Ptychodus04 said:

Definitely a Mioplosus

Interesting. I havent had a chance to prep a mio yet. I didnt realize their  fin spines were so robust  like a cockers. I got one in my prep pile (I think) but haven’t done it yet. I learned something new today!

Edited November 5 by Randyw

[Alex S.]

15 hours ago, jpc said:

Painter's tape on the fish??!!  I hope it is vinaced or otherwise coated before you do this.  (I do not coat mine).   Seems the tape would pull half of the fish off when you remove it.  

I have consolidated it with butvar b-98 (the paraloid and 76 we're out at the time) but I was planning on putting a paper over and them taping the edges but stretching it tightly over would work as well like @Ptychodus04 said. 

[Ptychodus04]

1 hour ago, Randyw said:

Interesting. I havent had a chance to prep a mio yet. I didnt realize their  fin spines were so robust  like a cockers. I got one in my prep pile (I think) but haven’t done it yet. I learned something new today!

Yep, Mioplosus has some intense spines on the 1st dorsal fin.

[Alex S.]

Here it is all trimmed down and on a stand for the moment I ended up using a hand saw as my tile saw blades was super dull but an old wood saw just tore through it in no time thanks for the advice everyone!

[Randyw]

Looking good! Great job!

[Ptychodus04]

Nice!

[jpc]

nice job.

tell us about the balloon poodle...

[Alex S.]

Haha @jpc my wife likes to paint and just decided to paint it one day. We occasionally do wine and paint nights and I can't remember if this was one of those.