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The day I figured out I was cleaning my fossils all wrong
I've been collecting fossils from creek beds around Ohio for maybe 5 years now. Used to scrub them with dish soap and a stiff brush when I got them home, thought I was doing it right. Then I visited the Cleveland Museum of Natural History last summer and one of the paleontology volunteers saw me with a find. She told me dish soap can actually damage the surface of some fossils, especially ones with fine detail like crinoid stems. Now I just use a soft toothbrush and plain water, and I feel like I ruined a few good pieces before I knew better. Has anyone else made this mistake with their finds?
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lucasw8221d ago
Yeah, I was totally in the same boat. I spent like three years using a toothbrush and a little bit of hand soap on all my finds from the creek, thinking I was being careful. Then I saw a video from a geology professor where he showed how soapy residue can stay in little cracks and actually break down the calcite over time. It made me feel pretty dumb for scrubbing some of those really detailed brachiopods so hard. Did you switch to just water after that or do you try anything else like a soft paintbrush?
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the_wyatt21d ago
lol hold up, I gotta push back a little. I've been using a drop of mild dish soap on a toothbrush for like 15 years and never had any calcite break down on me. Ive pulled some pretty detailed crinoid stems and trilobite pieces out of Kansas limestone and theyre all fine. If you rinse the soap off real good after scrubbing, theres no residue left to cause issues. The real killer is stuff like vinegar or strong acids, not a little Dawn. I think that geology professor might be overstating things.
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