Divers wanted for fossil diving the fossil ledges in North Carolina

[AustinV]

Nice job! Did you soak in just fresh water or use a vinegar mixture? Those look really good, and I'd bet if you soaked them again (especially with vinegar if you havent already) you can get that remaining white residue off. I really like the color of that tooth at 6 o'clock. Haven't started on mine yet.

 

[Barnaby'sDad]

Nice job! Did you soak in just fresh water or use a vinegar mixture? Those look really good, and I'd bet if you soaked them again (especially with vinegar if you havent already) you can get that remaining white residue off. I really like the color of that tooth at 6 o'clock. Haven't started on mine yet.

Thank you. I did both. I soaked them in water the first day and went to a mix of ~90% water / ~10% vinegar. After doing that, I went to a 50/50 mix.

The issue (for me) was finding something to pick at the teeth (I had to scraped a lot of growth off), but not risk damaging them. I used bamboo skewers that I had on hand. The spots that are remaining just didn’t want to budge. If I can find something better to pick at them with, I’ll soak the teeth in question one more time and give it another go.

The plant tooth/one at six o’clock is my favorite of the bunch. Color and condition wise, I’m very happy with that one.

 

[AustinV]

They're harder than you think to damage, see below


I have a set of what are basically dental picks from Home Depot, small hand tools. I've had some pretty tough spots, I'll try to pick from the center and work down in layers, then resoak if needed. It can be a process. I have yet to scratch a tooth with those if they're soaked properly.

 

[Barnaby'sDad]

Wow. Is right. I’ll take a look the next time I’m at Home Depot And see if I can get a set of those.

I was definitely cautious with this bunch, as it was my first. I’ll work on developing a more efficient process for the next batch.

 

[AustinV]

Another good tip, keep a few partial junk pieces of tooth you find each trip, the stuff you normally wouldn’t put in your bag, they’re good for practicing cleaning and seeing just how hard you can use a tool on them.

I personally haven’t been brave enough to use the grinder method, the guys who are bringing up buckets of teeth day after day to sell them have to move fast I guess.