RB's Fossil Fish Prep Thread !!!

[RJB]

13 hours ago, Randyw said:

. Why don’t you like soft matrix? Is it becuase the bones are more fragile? Or are they less well preserved?

    I went to the fish quarrys every year and sometimes twice a year and prepped the split fish layer fish for about 20 years.  Then I got my first fish in hard rock.  Fell in love.  

 

RB

[Ptychodus04]

16 hours ago, Randyw said:

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?

The fragile part. It makes preparation with scribes/abrasive more touchy. I don't mind the soft rock so much. I just turn the pressure WAAAAAY down on my abrasive and consolidate regularly. Generally speaking, the soft rock ones are more work and the fins are a total nightmare to prep.

[RJB]

   I went out into the garage again today.  Thats twice in a row!  I dont do that very often anymore but I did get these fins done on this little  5 inch Mioplosus.   99% of this was done with my ME9100 and then a tad bit of 'scratch and blow' to clean it up best I could.    Took some real concentration but I was fresh and well rested with some good sleep last night.  I must be gettin older?  The thing is, this little fish turned out super duper fantastic!!!  For me, it started out at about a $20 to $30 dollar fish and now is a $131,789.12 fish.  Not sure how I got the 12 cents in there but thats  what my calculations came to.   Ive always told anyone and everyone that "fins are tuff"!  These one came out so good that I will be smiling for days.  Here is a pic of what I post yesterday and what it looks like now.  I still have to square it up before it goes up onto the 'Great Fish Wall'!!!  Oh, there is no repair on this fish, no shoe polish, no stain, no acrylics, no nothin!!!  Hold it, I did stabilize the entire specimen with Glyptal.  Amazing what it soaked up.  OH!  May be hard to see, but get aload of the indevidual scales!!!  Just a fantastic little fish!!!

 

RB

[Arlie]

Very nice looking fish

[Randyw]

WOW! That’s outstanding! I think you undervalued it! 

[Randyw]

7 hours ago, Ptychodus04 said:

The fragile part. It makes preparation with scribes/abrasive more touchy

That’s what I suspected. I had fish that I got from one of you guys that I prepped with a stiff nylon brush (ok my toothbrush) it came out beautifully (in my opinion anyway) but I switched to the brush becuase everything else I tried was trying to take chips or pieces off. But I enjoyed it!

[FossilNerd]

Beautiful fish! 

[Ptychodus04]

Nice fish Ron @RJB

 

Too bad the first dorsal fin is down. That would have really been a looker if it was up seeing how well the fins came out on the rest of the fish. The scale orientation is superb. It is very rare to have them all in the right place.

[RJB]

On 3/19/2020 at 7:02 AM, Ptychodus04 said:

Nice fish Ron @RJB

 

Too bad the first dorsal fin is down. That would have really been a looker if it was up seeing how well the fins came out on the rest of the fish. The scale orientation is superb. It is very rare to have them all in the right place.

 A bit late for this reply, but thank you Kris.  This is truly an A-Grade fish even though that first dorsal is in the down position.  thats actually very common along with the 2nd dorsal too,, so I got lucky by 50%.  

 

RB

[Ptychodus04]

12 minutes ago, RJB said:

 A bit late for this reply, but thank you Kris.  This is truly an A-Grade fish even though that first dorsal is in the down position.  thats actually very common along with the 2nd dorsal too,, so I got lucky by 50%.  

 

RB

Yep. Most of the ones I’ve prepped have both down

[RJB]

 Like many folks I didnt go anywhere for 6 weeks!  I finally got out of the house and took a drive to my other property and brought home a bunch of fossil fish slabs.  My youngest son also drove out there to help me.  He doesnt know it yet but im gunna let him pick out one of the bigger nicer fish and prep it out for him and frame it too.   What do I care.  its only a rock.  Only a stupid old fish!  Ha!      Here is some of the smaller stuff im gunna prep out this summer.   Oh, all this is from the Bottom Cap. 

 

 

Some fossil fish slabs that are both in 2 pieces!  The one on the left is a serrata.  One on the right is just another Knightia.

 

 

Here is the seratta with cut lines.  Gots a long ways to go on this one.

 

 

A 12 inch Diplo that is very  close to the surface and looks almost perfect!!!

 

 

About a 6 inch diplo that also looks to be almost perfect!!!

 

 

I wish there was a bit more rock on the bottom of this but this could very well be my best Knightia ever?!  Time will tell. 

 

 

 

 

[Ptychodus04]

Nice starting point and those bottom cap fish are usually amazing.

[RJB]

@Ptychodus04   Thanks for the Text last knight.  Ive got Jack all taken care of now. 

 

RB

[Ptychodus04]

24 minutes ago, RJB said:

@Ptychodus04   Thanks for the Text last knight.  Ive got Jack all taken care of now. 

 

RB

 Glad you’re ok.. well as ok as you normally are. 

[RJB]

  Its gunna be a very busy and fishy summer!   My youngest son came over today and while I was marking the fish slabs, he was using my gas powered saw and trimmin them up.  He also left with a lot of fish slabs!!!   And Ive still got fish slabs freekin everywhere!!!  Purty nice to know that ive got all these fossil prep projects!  Just need time. 

 

Ron

[RJB]

  Been awhile since ive posted.   Ive been working on this Mio since then.  This Mio is in some soft rock and the bones are very soft!  I might try some bicarb along with some low pressure on some of the head bones but nothing else. 

 

RB

 

 

Here is what it looked like before I started.  Hard to see but surrounded by little knightia's.  I will prep those last.  Oh, this fish is about 13 inches.

 

 

I haven't been keeping track of the prep hours but im guessing this is about 12 hours.  Im going real slow and being very careful so as not to lose any bone material. 

 

 

This is about another 12 hours.  Ive been using both the 'scratch and blow' and the 'stop and glue' tecniques to save as much bone material as possible.  A very slow precess.  That little spot left on the tail will take be up to 2 hours an I will still lose some little tiny pieces as you can see where Im done!  A very agrivating job!  Still got a long ways to go. 

[RJB]

 Ok, another 4 hours or a little over and got a bunch of these little Knightia's exposed.  I still need to clean them up and ive still got about 6 hours or so just cleaning up this slab, then I can go on the media blaster attack and see how the head turns out?  Lookin purty good though.  Better than I thought it would. 

 

RB

 

 

Ive also got a small tiny bit of acryic work to help make these little knightia's look a bit better.  They were all TUFF preps!

[hadrosauridae]

great plate!  

[Ptychodus04]

That looks great Ron!!

[Ludwigia]

Fantastic!

[Randyw]

WOW!

[FossilNerd]

Looks great so far! 

[Pagurus]

What an amazing slab you have there. The Mioplosus by itself is wonderful. With the Knightia it's outstanding! I've been trying to paint a Mioplosus the past few days, and I appreciate the good timing of your post. This plate is awesome!

[RJB]

15 hours ago, hadrosauridae said:

great plate!  

Thanks man

 

14 hours ago, Ptychodus04 said:

That looks great Ron!!

Thanks friend

 

12 hours ago, Ludwigia said:

Fantastic!

Thanks Roger

 

12 hours ago, Randyw said:

WOW!

Yep and thanks Randy

 

8 hours ago, Pagurus said:

What an amazing slab you have there. The Mioplosus by itself is wonderful. With the Knightia it's outstanding! I've been trying to paint a Mioplosus the past few days, and I appreciate the good timing of your post. This plate is awesome!

Thank you and may I ask, what do you mean by 'paint'?

[Fossildude19]

48 minutes ago, RJB said:

Thank you and may I ask, what do you mean by 'paint'?

Ron, 

He means in Paint a picture.  

 

Awesome specimen, and usual fantastic prep work!