Showerthought: I burned $85 on the wrong fossil prep tool and ruined a 40 dollar trilobite

Parker Park · 2026-10-09T03:40:02.510915+00:00

I grabbed a cheap air scribe off a random site for $85 to clean a trilobite I dug near Delta, Utah last month, and it chipped the eye lobe on the first pass because the tip was way too coarse. I should have stuck with my hand picks and a pin vise, which are slow but safe, and now the fossil is a display piece with a chunk missing. What prep tools are you all actually using on delicate stuff, and is there a grit or tip size you swear by?

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Showerthought: I burned $85 on the wrong fossil prep tool and ruined a 40 dollar trilobite | Archaeology Discoveries - Talk Freely