RB's Fossil Fish Prep Thread !!!

[Randyw]

Now back to the thread at hand! It’s looking great as always! I know you’ve prepped thousands of things but how many different species do you think you’ve prepped over the years?

[Ptychodus04]

3 hours ago, Randyw said:

I think I just peed myself a little in happiness! 

I wouldn’t get that excited. 

[RJB]

    Had both of my younger sons working up a storm today. Beside all the building stuff gettting done they also did a lot of rock cutting. We got some fragile fish glued onto some backer board and even got some ovaled, then I took a couple of them to the table belt sander. So nice to be getting stuff done. You cant see whats on the table saw. More fossil fish in different stages of prep. Most of this fossil fish stuff I'm working on is a lot of my smaller stuff but I have lot of the bigger stuff to start on this late spring? Lots to do. 

 

 

 

The small fish slab in the upper lefthand corner that has a clamp on it is a catfish!!!  My youngest son found it about 10 years ago and is quite proud of it and wanted to glue it to a backer board for it to be very stabilized.  It was in many pieces when he found it. 

 

 

[RJB]

On 2/15/2020 at 4:05 PM, Randyw said:

I know you’ve prepped thousands of things but how many different species do you think you’ve prepped over the

Thats a tuff one.  but I cant hold a candle to @oilshale.  I am a mer kitten to this guy who has MILLIONS of different species of fossil fish!!! 

 

RB

[Randyw]

MILLIONS
millions? Millions?!!

[oilshale]

20 hours ago, RJB said:

Thats a tuff one.  but I cant hold a candle to @oilshale.  I am a mer kitten to this guy who has MILLIONS of different species of fossil fish!!! 

 

RB

I wish that were true and I had millions of fossils  (the only problem would be - my wife would file for divorce).

[RJB]

   Ive been working on this super nice Knightia eocaena from the Green River Formation for awhile now. This fish comes from the bottom cap of the 18 inch layer. In very hard and very dense rock and the bones too are very very hard making for a time consuming but very beautiful prep job. Also, you can see the beautiful polish job on the edge. There is no glues, no shoe polish, no staining, no painiting, no consolident, no nothing on this slab of rock! Besides the tail end not being perfect, (you work with what mother nature gives you), this fish is one heck of a nice fish!!! Oh, ive still got the ventral fins to finish up.

 

RB

[Tidgy's Dad]

It may be small, but that's a wonderful specimen. 

[Randyw]

That came out great!

[RJB]

  I spent the last 2 days in the garage 'ruffing' out this rather large Diplo from the Green River Formation.  Gots a long ways to go still.  This is about 12 hours.   The bone is a bit soft on this specimen and am wondering just how some low pressure with some bicarb is going to work?  Especially for the fins!!!???  Time will tell.  and no @Ptychodus04, this is not the one I was giving you the business with,,,,,   that one is rimmed in gold!  I will get that one prepped out this summer.   Then you can throw all your diplo's away!  

 

RB

[Fossildude19]

[Tidgy's Dad]

[Kane]

[Ptychodus04]

5 hours ago, RJB said:

  and no @Ptychodus04, this is not the one I was giving you the business with,,,,,   that one is rimmed in gold!  I will get that one prepped out this summer.   Then you can throw all your diplo's away!  

Looking good. You keep talking about that mystery Diplo but I don’t think it will beat any of mine. Bring it on big boy! 
 

Oh, by the way... I’m all stocked up on smoker wood again! I found a new source for oak and hickory. 225 acres of timber in east Texas. I split this all by hand.

[Ruger9a]

On 3/13/2020 at 10:35 PM, Ptychodus04 said:

Looking good. You keep talking about that mystery Diplo but I don’t think it will beat any of mine. Bring it on big boy! 
 

Oh, by the way... I’m all stocked up on smoker wood again! I found a new source for oak and hickory. 225 acres of timber in east Texas. I split this all by hand.

Do you hire out????  :-)

[Ptychodus04]

27 minutes ago, Ruger9a said:

Do you hire out????  :-)

Sure, but I ain’t cheap.

[Ruger9a]

Nothing is these days, LOL.

[FossilNerd]

Looking good so far, as usual! Can’t wait to see the rest! 

[hadrosauridae]

12 hours ago, Ptychodus04 said:

....

Oh, by the way... I’m all stocked up on smoker wood again! I found a new source for oak and hickory. 225 acres of timber in east Texas. I split this all by hand.

 

by HAND?! Like with a wedge and sledge?  Holy snarge man, I did enough of that as a kid.  I tried to split a rick by hand once again about 10 years ago and wanted to die.  Now I'm happy to use a hydraulic splitter.  

[RJB]

  A little over 5 1/2 hours and ran into a problem!  Dorsal fin all messed up!!!  Just absolutely disgusted with it now!   Had to call it quits.  I will try to attack it in a few days when the pain has subsided and the eyes not so red and swollen from cryin!   

 

RB

[Ptychodus04]

Tough break Ron. Sorry to hear it.

[Ptychodus04]

On 3/14/2020 at 9:56 AM, hadrosauridae said:

by HAND?! Like with a wedge and sledge?  Holy snarge man, I did enough of that as a kid.  I tried to split a rick by hand once again about 10 years ago and wanted to die.  Now I'm happy to use a hydraulic splitter.  

By hand with a splitting maul. I spent every summer as a kid splitting wood for my grandfather with a maul and wedges. He lived in Minnesota and heated the house with wood I split for him. That was a lot of splitting.

 

I still enjoy it. I find that I’m a happier man when swinging an axe or the like. If I could do it more often, I would love it. The problem is that I can only burn so much wood when camping or cooking. I did burn about 1/4 of it this weekend camping with my boys though.  
 

I took the opportunity to anneal a 36” piece of railroad track in the campfire that I’m going to forge into hammers. 

[RJB]

  Ok, too disgusted with that last fish and drove to the back 40 this morning to get some more fish slabs.  I only live on one acre of land but it sounds better when i say the 'back 40'.  

 

 

  Here is a pic of my 'back40'.  I had some left over D-Logs after the exspansion of the house and used up the last of them to build a little horse barn that right now holds fossil fish slabs. 

 

 

  I just grabbed some of the smaller stuff and now its a matter of how some of these will turn out? 

 

 

The 2 on the left I have major concerns for.  top one looks like it may turn out to be a nice little diplo.  A nice little cockerellites below that.  To the right of that one is a small mioplosus.

 

 

A couple of multi's, all knightias im sure.  Looks to be some very soft rock.  Could be a big problem?

 

 

This little Mio is turning out fantasticly well!!!   Ive called it quits here cause I want to be fresh and rested (and less wiskey)  in order to do a nice job on the fins. 

 

 

  Sure enough, very soft rock.  I really do prefer the harder rock when it comes to fossil fishes of the Green River Formation. 

 

 

[RJB]

  One little baby Diplomystus dentatus with one adult in a homemake barnwood frame with nails still in the wood.  Cooler than cowpoop if you ask me!!! 

 

RB

[Randyw]

Really cool! And can’t wait to see how the others come out! I personally like a nice soft matrix even though it makes it a little trickier. Why don’t you like soft matrix? Is it becuase the bones are more fragile? Or are they less well preserved?