Collecting fossils can vary from a simple walk in the middle of nature or on a beach in shorts and a t-shirt during the summer to a challenge that requires physical effort during the winter.
the need to dress appropriately to protect against risks merits planning the necessary tools to help you on your adventure
I have prepared an article for you to share with you the tools you will use to hunt fossils with some general tips for efficient and safe fossil hunting.
1: Map
you may need have a good map to record of the location of your fossil-collecting sites. it will be good if you can use especially the topographic maps (maps that show the shape of the landscape, as well as roads, houses, and rivers).
This kind of maps can be purchased for a moderate price at your state or federal geological survey offices.
2: Hard hat
a quality hard hat is one of the most essential items of safety equipment . if you are expecting to hunt fossils in areas that are liable to falling rocks, a standard builder's hard hat is the minimum that should be worn especially cliff faces and within quarries.
The example of the product below is a climbers hard hat, engineered with practicality in mind.
3: High visibility jacket
One of the recommended tools for fossil hunting is a high visibility jacket or brightly coloured clothing and this to improve your chances of being quickly found if an accident were to take place.
using a high visibility jacket is a legal requirement within quarries as it increase your visibility to vehicle operators in particular.
The most suitable jackets include those intended originally for cyclists, these usually incorporate high visibility features and protect from the wind.
4: A strong bag
Concerning the utility bag, you must reserve one that will only be used for your fossil hunt; rocks are dusty and muddy and can spoil anything they come in contact with.
The bag you are going to use must also carry the accessories necessary for your hunt and which must be easily accessible (easily accessible pockets).
Finally, I will give you the recommended characteristics of the bags to use in fossils hunting:
- a strong holder construction,
- a strong straps,
- a plenty of easily accessible pockets
- an optional rain cover.
- a back support,
- with a brightly coloured,
5: walking boots
During your fossil hunt it is highly likely that you will cross a variety of types of terrain, so your shoes should be designed for a variety of conditions.
We recommend that you use a walking shoe that will protect you from ankle sprains, give you more grip on slippery surfaces and keep you dry in wet weather.
6: Hammer
The choice of an appropriate hammer is important for you, for fossil Hunting, the hammer must have a large head and a well constructed handle, this kind of material, must be bought with care.
Before thinking of buying a hammer in your local store, try several different weights until you find one that suits you, that is, a hammer that you can work with without greater physical effort since a hammer that is too heavy for the user will prevent its use and risk repetitive strain injury.
For people with less physical strength (and children in particular), we recommend a head weight not exceeding 500 g.
7: Chisel
The chisel will allow you either to
- Remove the fossils from the surrounding matrix
- Split the potentially fossiliferous nodules.
Use a large chisel to do the bulk of the work and use small chisels only for finer work.
We strongly recommend that you buy a chisel based on cold steel because this metal is specially designed for hard materials.
8: Eye protection
before hammering rocks, we recommend that you use safety glasses to avoid the risk of injury from rock chips.
If someone else is with you (wife or husband, friend...) he should also wear safety glasses, because the splinters can travel several meters from their origin.
9: Hammering glove
to extract fossils from the surrounding rock, you obviously need several minutes, or often several hours, depending on your experience! and working without wearing protective gloves, will complicate your tasks and can expose you to risks, for example when recovering a difficult specimen risk to inflict many blisters. We recommend fingerless gloves with a leather underside for better grip and comfort.
10: Steel point
In some instances it's not necessary to use a hammer and chisel to remove the matrix surrounding the fossil. Sometimes all that's required is some careful precision work using a steel point. This is particularly relevant with crumbly matrix, where chiselling may otherwise shatter a fragile fossil. The steel point can also be used in conjunction with a liquid or gel glue (see below) as a last resort in the field to position and consolidate loose parts of the fossil.is true that preparing the fossil by removing the matrix surrounding it needs using a hammer and chisel but, sometimes, the fossils hunting require a careful precision work that can't be done with these tools; This is relevant particularly with crumbly matrix, where chiselling may otherwise shatter a fossil fragile.
for this reason and in like this situation you need to use a steel point as a tool to hunt your fossil without shatter it.
The steel point as a tool in your fossil hunting can also be used in conjunction with a liquid or gel glue if you want, in some cases like a last resort, to position and consolidate loose parts of the fossil.
11. Brush
The brush is one of the most essential tools you need have in your toolkit, at home and in the field. Generally, the fossil is partially covered by dust and loose material, in this case you need use a brush to clean the surface then you can assess a suitable method of fossil recovery.
We recommend you a soft, fine bristled brush. You can find below our suggestions.
The brush can be useful when making repairs in the field to clean the adjoining surfaces before gluing.
12.Gel and liquid superglue
During your fossil trip, it recommended to use the glue to repair your fossil as a last resort; using glue is certainly irreversible action, we advice you to not undertaker repairs only in controlled places (at home or in laboratory under suitable conditions).
Generally you have two situations : In instance you can safety transport the broken specimen without incurring further damages or, maybe sustain irreversible damage in transit, we recommend you do not use the glue, otherwise, you can make a fast setting glue.
13.Protective wrapping and elastic bands
During transportation and storage phase of your fossil hunting, you will need to protect your fossils by using a foam sheets.
As you know,maybe, the foam sheets are commonly used in fruit boxes to prevent bruising to apples and pears ...etc during transportation or storage; you can also use they as well to protect your finds.
The advantage of this equipment is with a light weight that you can easily carried during your fossil trips, and also can be used quickly, easily when needed and a dozen or more times than newspaper for example.
Now you can understand the need of wrapping fossils with a foam sheets, but is this enough to secure totally your wrapping ? Of course no!
To be sure, we recommend you to use elastic bands in your warping,
The elastic bands have an added benefit, it can be used a several times needed and in all weather conditions during your fossils trips.
14. Padded compartment box and small bags
You may likely, during your hunting, find small and fragile specimens, in this case, using a padded compartment box containing cotton wool to carry your finds will be a good idea.
Using the cotton wool is to ensure that the specimen are well held in place during transportation but of course without this they'd be at heighted risk of damage; cause sometimes the cotton wool may pose a risk to the specimen. during the removal of strands of cotton wool that becomes caught, the specimens with fragile surface details may be susceptible to be damage.
In like this situation, we recommend you to take an extra care if this occurs by using small plastic bags.
The added benefit of using these small plastic bags during your fossils trip is to isolate specimen from each other and reducing the risk of damage and, in worst cases, the bag ensured any loose fragments part (of fragile specimen especially) are contained.
in some instances, You may need to use the bag in conjunction with cotton wool within a compartment box to to prevent any stands of cotton fibre become tangled around the specimen.
15. Hand lens.
You may need to enjoy the finer details of the specimen you find , right ? In this case using a hand lens enable you know how well some of the more intricate structures in your finds are preserved.
We recommend a lens with x10 magnification that folds away into a metal casing to protect it from damage.
Finally, i can say that with all these equipments you will have a safe trip and hunting. In our website you can find some equipments reviews in TopProduct category in order to give you more chance to get what you need exactly.