I absolutely adore your program it is so nice to see a young person taking time to share their wealth of information with everyone else. Keep up the good work young lady
What do you do to stabilize fossils? I've heard of it but don't know what it is. I have an ammonite that I want to prep. Also, how do you get the beautiful colors to show? You are so smart, I bet you the answer for me. Your channel is so informative, keep it up.
Hi Rod, it depends on the mineral composition of the fossil. Most frequently, people would like to know how stabilize pyrite ammonites, which loose their color and even disintegrate under humid conditions due to oxidation (FeS2+O2=FeSO4). For an ordinary collector, the best way to preserve such a fossil by soaking it in the paraffin. You would need to clean the fossil from dirt with a slightly alkali solution (a little bit of laundry detergent). It's better to be done soon after the fossil is extracted from the ground and still "wet". Heat and dry the sample for 20-40 min in an oven or under lamp (no more than 100oC, you should be able to handle it while it's warm). Let the fossil stay in dry place for few days to allow it to dry completely. Get a piece of paraffin and shave off small pieces. Put them into a pan with the fossil. Boil 2-4 min and watch how small air bubbles leaving the fossil (paraffin will replace air and protect the fossil from oxidation). Take the pan off the fire (stop heating) once paraffin starts boiling too strongly (with large bubbles). Take out the hot fossil using forceps and clean up extra paraffin. Be careful. Cover with a hair spray (hair lacquer) and then (after drying) with colorless nail polish (cover first one side of the fossil and then another side). Hair spray is needed to help with sticking nail polish to the paraffin. The procedure may change the hue/coloration of the fossil. The people who developed the technique mentioned that it works best for freshly excavated fossils. It you see white dust covering the pyrite and indicating corrosion, it is likely hopeless. Practice on unimportant piece first to test and improve the technique. Below is the link to the source of the information. My dad happen to know one of the authors via few collaboration on fossils and art related matters. So, he mentioned the article to me. www.ginras.ru/p-science/files/nelihov_rogov2008_ammonit.pdf The non-pyrite ammonites are mostly polished. This is what brings out the color in the vast majority of lapidary samples. Good luck and thanks for watching.
I absolutely adore your program it is so nice to see a young person taking time to share their wealth of information with everyone else. Keep up the good work young lady
Thanks, Joe! Much appreciated.
You have a good collection of ammonites. I like this video.
You are a very good teacher, Koi..! I learned a lot about this topic..! Thank you..!!!
Hi! I'm glad it was useful to you.Thanks for watching and commenting.
Thanks, Koi. I learned a lot and it was helpful to know about the ammolite/fossilized mother of pearl ammonite I just bought. Thank you again!
Gorgeous and informative video👍
Thank you, Michael!
Thank you so much for this information! I found one but it broke into 4 pieces when I dropped it. I'm trying to get a museum to analyse it for me.
Thanks for the comment. Good luck with the fossil identification.
GREAT VIDEO!!
Thank you.
You're welcome!
What do you do to stabilize fossils? I've heard of it but don't know what it is. I have an ammonite that I want to prep. Also, how do you get the beautiful colors to show? You are so smart, I bet you the answer for me. Your channel is so informative, keep it up.
Hi Rod, it depends on the mineral composition of the fossil. Most frequently, people would like to know how stabilize pyrite ammonites, which loose their color and even disintegrate under humid conditions due to oxidation (FeS2+O2=FeSO4). For an ordinary collector, the best way to preserve such a fossil by soaking it in the paraffin.
You would need to clean the fossil from dirt with a slightly alkali solution (a little bit of laundry detergent). It's better to be done soon after the fossil is extracted from the ground and still "wet". Heat and dry the sample for 20-40 min in an oven or under lamp (no more than 100oC, you should be able to handle it while it's warm). Let the fossil stay in dry place for few days to allow it to dry completely. Get a piece of paraffin and shave off small pieces. Put them into a pan with the fossil. Boil 2-4 min and watch how small air bubbles leaving the fossil (paraffin will replace air and protect the fossil from oxidation). Take the pan off the fire (stop heating) once paraffin starts boiling too strongly (with large bubbles). Take out the hot fossil using forceps and clean up extra paraffin. Be careful. Cover with a hair spray (hair lacquer) and then (after drying) with colorless nail polish (cover first one side of the fossil and then another side). Hair spray is needed to help with sticking nail polish to the paraffin. The procedure may change the hue/coloration of the fossil. The people who developed the technique mentioned that it works best for freshly excavated fossils. It you see white dust covering the pyrite and indicating corrosion, it is likely hopeless. Practice on unimportant piece first to test and improve the technique. Below is the link to the source of the information. My dad happen to know one of the authors via few collaboration on fossils and art related matters. So, he mentioned the article to me.
www.ginras.ru/p-science/files/nelihov_rogov2008_ammonit.pdf
The non-pyrite ammonites are mostly polished. This is what brings out the color in the vast majority of lapidary samples. Good luck and thanks for watching.
@@KOIstories Thanks!