Ptychodus04’s Fossil Fish Prepapalooza

[Ptychodus04]

You guys are going to get fat eating all that popcorn. I'm 2 hours into the prep at this point and it is SLOW going.

[Ludwigia]

[RJB]

Now this is cool.  Paddle fish? 

 

RB

[Ptychodus04]

7 hours ago, RJB said:

Now this is cool.  Paddle fish? 

 

RB

Yes sir. It's the first articulated paddlefish that I've had the honor to work on. The rock is separating well from the bone, but the bone is very brittle. It takes a lot of stopping for Paraloid to keep it together.

[Ptychodus04]

This is what 6 hours of prep under a microscope on a delicate specimen looks like. 

 

It’s tough to keep these paper this bones on the matrix. Prep a few seconds, stabilize, move to another area, prep it while the Paraloid dries, stabilize that area, move onto a 3rd and repeat the process. You have to jump all over the place in order for the Paraloid to have time to fully dry or you lose all benefits of the stabilization.

 

[Kane]

Yikes… Well, despite having to break concentration constantly, at least the scenery is always changing.  

[Ptychodus04]

54 minutes ago, Kane said:

Yikes… Well, despite having to break concentration constantly, at least the scenery is always changing.  

 

Yah, it's always fun to play leapfrog on a specimen while you're prepping it! The good thing is that the Paraloid, once fully set, hardens the bone sufficiently to keep it intact. As long as I don't over consolidate, the matrix is still popping pretty well.

 

That new scribe is amazing. There's almost no air pushing across the specimen, just enough to clear the debris and there's no vibration transmitted to the bones to speak of. I'm running at 15 PSI and that's low enough, with the precision of the tool, to almost touch the stylus to the bone without damage! I'm scribing off material that I would normally have to use abrasives to remove.

[Ludwigia]

9 minutes ago, Ptychodus04 said:

That new scribe is amazing.

 

I missed out on that. What is it?

[Ptychodus04]

2 minutes ago, Ludwigia said:

 

I missed out on that. What is it?

I picked up an HW-70 in Tucson this weekend. It should have come with a drool bucket! Good ‘ole German engineering making my wallet easier to sit on.

 

[Ludwigia]

1 minute ago, Ptychodus04 said:

I picked up an HW-70 in Tucson this weekend.

 

Gotcha. Good old Hardy Winkler. I have that one and also the HW-60 for tougher work.

[fossilhunter21]

Looking good! 

 

 

‐@fossilhunter21

[Ptychodus04]

Here’s today’s progress. I had to shovel the snow and ice off the step and knock ice out of the lock just to get into the lab this afternoon. We had all 3 types of winter precipitation over the last 24 hours.

 

[Nanotyrannus35]

Looks like a really slow prep. How big is it? Also, I wish the weather here in northern Utah was that interesting. For the past month it's basically just been 36 and partly cloudy.

[Ptychodus04]

On 2/4/2022 at 11:29 AM, Nanotyrannus35 said:

How big is it?

It’s approximately 32” long. 
 

I’m just shy of 20 hours into in now. There’s a bit of soft tissue preservation. That’s cool but the prep really started to slow down when I started finding preserved denticles. This is going to be a really cool fish.

 

 

[Ptychodus04]

What do you get when you have to stop and stabilize often? An odd looking fish with several places partially prepped at the same time. 

I put 3 more hours into it today after church.

 

 

 

Here’s a close up of some of the denticles with a bit more uncovered from yesterday an a slightly better pic.

[Randyw]

Its going to be amazing!

[Ptychodus04]

4 hours ago, Randyw said:

Its going to be amazing!

It will eventually. 

[Ptychodus04]

30 hours in and at least that much to go!

 

This thing is a beast!

[fossilhunter21]

That thing is looking very good!

 

 

-@fossilhunter21

[Top Trilo]

That's gonna be a one of a kind piece once you're finished! Isn't that little Knightia? just saying, "Prep Me!"

 

Are you the lucky owner of this specimen?

[RJB]

Lookin real good!

[Ptychodus04]

1 hour ago, fossilhunter21 said:

That thing is looking very good!

 

 

-@fossilhunter21

Thanks. It is a fun and tedious fellow to work on. Brittle bones and a million denticles that don't all lay flat, who could ask for more?

 

 

19 minutes ago, Top Trilo said:

That's gonna be a one of a kind piece once you're finished! Isn't that little Knightia? just saying, "Prep Me!"

 

Are you the lucky owner of this specimen?

It is a little Knightia. There are a handful on the surface that are mostly on the other side of the split. These are just the remnants. This prep is for a client. I just get to make it worth looking at and then I have to give it back.

 

19 minutes ago, RJB said:

Lookin real good!

Thank you sir. I don't really like prepping Sandwich Bed material, but this one is worth the trouble.

[Nanotyrannus35]

Looks like it's gonna be great when it's finished!

[Ptychodus04]

38 hours… I see now why many preparators don’t even attempt to save the denticles on these fish! Boy, do they slow down a prep.  

 

[Randyw]

43 minutes ago, Ptychodus04 said:

Boy, do they slow down a prep

But it sure does look like it will be worth it!