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Post by ammocarbsteve on Jan 17, 2015 13:03:29 GMT -5
All done.... I left the wood as is for now unless I learn something I could put on it without making it too shiney or artificial looking.... Its nice how the shell changes colour from brown to black retaining some calcite nr the mouth boarder.... It has the ' Somerset coast watermark ', a thin calcite vein running through the fossil and rock just missing the wood.... It amazes me how the limestone on this coast is so fragmented but also uniform in rectangular blocks... You could almost build houses with the chunks naturally framenting as they get lifted by the strong tides... Its this fragmentation that makes finding complete specimens pretty rare...I wonder what Geological forces the limestone layers must of undergone to end up this way....
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Post by ammocarbsteve on Jan 23, 2015 1:35:55 GMT -5
Bit of a heavy lump but we shall see if this chunk has any potential....
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Post by ammocarbsteve on Jan 24, 2015 8:02:34 GMT -5
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Post by ammocarbsteve on Jan 24, 2015 8:04:12 GMT -5
Cont...
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Post by ammocarbsteve on Jan 24, 2015 8:08:09 GMT -5
On the ammonite front.... I done 3 hours on the mouth of the latest ammonite and also taken a pie shaped chunk out going in a few layers to check the preservation.... Looking ok so far....Lifting this onto the bench made me realise I dont know where I found the strength to carry it a mile or so.... I took a lot off the back to try and get the weight down.... I shall continue with this shell during the week after work here and there...
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Post by Joe Botting on Jan 24, 2015 15:31:41 GMT -5
On the ammonite front.... I done 3 hours on the mouth of the latest ammonite and also taken a pie shaped chunk out going in a few layers to check the preservation.... Looking ok so far....Lifting this onto the bench made me realise I dont know where I found the strength to carry it a mile or so.... I took a lot off the back to try and get the weight down.... I shall continue with this shell during the week after work here and there... View AttachmentGood to see you're keeping so busy..! I really like the wood. It's always interesting to see how the original structures has been replaced and modified by the mineralisation in this stuff...
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Post by Joe Botting on Jan 24, 2015 15:34:02 GMT -5
Bit of a heavy lump but we shall see if this chunk has any potential.... View AttachmentLots of potential, Steve - you just need to train him to find ammonites!
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Post by ammocarbsteve on Jan 25, 2015 4:48:29 GMT -5
Attachment Deleted[/quote] Lots of potential, Steve - you just need to train him to find ammonites! [/quote] Hmmmm.... Good thinking Joe...You have a point there... Fetch...
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Post by ammocarbsteve on Jan 30, 2015 9:50:46 GMT -5
I managed a couple of hours this week on the ammonite mainly chasing the keel round.... In places its retained a nice 3D keel profile but mostly it has crushed flat leaving just a calcitic ridge around the edge.... Not quite perfection but after 198 million years you cant complain.... Its prepping quite nicely with the matrix being what I call quite fiberous in texture perhaps representing the layers of transition from shale to limestone... I remember seeing this bed poorly preserved with mud filled living chambers on the underside of the block occasionally visible in the cliffs....Nice to get a decent one at last...
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Post by ammocarbsteve on Feb 1, 2015 4:35:57 GMT -5
We had raging northerlys on Thursday and slightly reduced in strength same direction last night I was itching to get out on the beach.... I had an idea to go for nautilus and was dissapointed 4 times with crushed or worn specimens... One chunk of rock had the remains of 2 in it so that would of been summert real special if it was complete..... I found an ammonite around 7 inches from the same bed as the one I am working on and a Plagiostoma and whilst out on the reefs looking for bone... I lifted a Cenoceras from some hard shale only to find it was crushed but the small Plagiostoma was in the mouth of it so I brought that back and prepped it straight away....
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Post by ammocarbsteve on Feb 14, 2015 3:02:53 GMT -5
This one has been ongoing for a couple of months here and there... Not specifically a difficult prep but requiring plenty of patience and a controlled drying process for the fragile shale.... Prep began with a scalpel taking time to remove the fine laminated shale from above the crushed shell.... Splitting the shale down using steel wedges put into grooves cut with a diamond saw blade.... Waehneroceras portlocki ... Not a common shell you see in ammonite collections and although crushed I would say a very large example complete to the pin point centre... Its going on the wall now I think....
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Post by Joe Botting on Feb 15, 2015 16:06:24 GMT -5
Very nice indeed, Steve! It's not one I've ever heard of (but that's not saying much, to be honest...). Anyhow, your walls must be quite a treat...
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Post by ammocarbsteve on Feb 20, 2015 3:59:01 GMT -5
Thanks Joe....We all enjoy different things from the fossil record.... I enjoy sharing and seeing the passion conveyed in everyones chosen field.... Its on the wall... Getting close to the centre on the big shell....
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Post by ammocarbsteve on Feb 23, 2015 14:33:34 GMT -5
Not worth downloading that one....
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Post by Joe Botting on Feb 25, 2015 15:18:30 GMT -5
Certainly beats wallpaper!! Now, if only my sponges would look quite as good...
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