Cleaning/Dissolving Fossils With Vinegar - Fossil Friday On A Friday Yay 

Never use Muriatic Acid on fossils. I found that out the hard way some time back. Vinegar works well. Soak them in a baking soda & water mix afterwards to neutralize the acid in the vinegar. Another classic video. Thank you again, as always.

Emma: I thought you did a wonderful job demonstrating the use of vinegar on calcareous fossils. You definitely seem to have achieved some confidence on the subject! It’s all about experimentation. Hydrogen peroxide is another liquid compound that you might play with. It doesn’t have the problem of etching away carbonate material like acids do. In regards to the ammonite you cleaned up, I seriously doubt you leached out the innermost whorls. More than likely they were already gone and you merely dissolved out calcareous mud that filled the void. I have found that the innermost whorl, or protoconch, is commonly missing. I also thought that vinegar really enhanced the ribbing on your specimen. I also though at some point you might create a drawing on video of an ammonite and a belemnite to explain to your audience what these amazing creatures were all about. I would imagine most folks are puzzled especially when it comes to belemnites. You are very creative and I believe your discussion would be both entertaining and educational. Just a thought. Looking forward to your next video. As always, stay safe and healthy.

Vinegar is a weak acid and can destroy calcified fossils if left on. Good rule of thumb is to soak in baking soda and water for 4-5 times longer than it was exposed to vinegar to neutralize the acid.

Lots of the professional preppers I know get a little leery about using PVA as a fixative or coating. I've heard that PVA can discolor over time. Currently, many people use a five percent solution of Paraloid B72 or Paraloid B98 dissolved in acetone or pure ethyl alcohol. I don't remember who supplies B72, but you can Google it. It can also be used as an adhesive. Many paleobotanists frown on using fixatives to stabilize plant fossils, because the fixative can impede studies of phytoliths and other structures.

Hi Emma, great video! Vinegar works well on Belemnites, I use it to dissolve the chalk from the centre of broken pieces so they can be threaded onto a necklace chain. A word of warning though: Never use vinegar to clean a fossil Sea Urchin, these fossils are only held together by the chalk 'ball' inside them and they WILL fall to pieces :( Hugs Louie Xx

Great work! With vinegar, I usually leave them in a bowl of it over night :)

Wow. Fascinating. Love your passion for fossils and rocks 😁

I've never actually used vinegar at home but translating my lab experience... For dissolving large blocks to look for microvertebrate bones I'd typically use 5-10% acetic acid (not sure how that converts to vinegar but you can probably find that online somewhere) with a small amount of buffer (perhaps a little bit of baking soda as has been suggested?). Leave that for 24 hours and then pick out anything that had been left in the residue. Make sure to soak fossils in water (with an appropriate measure of baking soda) for at lest twice as long as you had them in acid. If you want to do repeat acid baths but part of your fossil is exposed how you want it already, put a coat of paraloid (or personally I think cyanoacrylate handles a little better) on to protect it. Making sure the paraloid is completely dry before resubmerging helps prevent bubbles and discolouration too. Doesn't really matter if the fossil is silicious but if you've got something in calcium phosphate like bone then the acid will still attack it, albeit at a slower rate. Speaking of paraloid, I tend to put a reeeeeaaaally thin coat on belemnites, just to bring out those colours a little better :)

Great video. Something positive to do during the lockdown.

Was in the shed looking at my mineral collection, lots of interesting crystals and metals 👍

My entire collection compresses of Ice Age fossils, many times these fossils have 10,000 years of dirt and silt caked in layers over the fossil surface. Many of these fossils you can clearly see loose dirt, small pebbles that are logged into small crevasses all over the fossil bones. Washing it with water or just using a brush on the fossils does not dislodged most of the dirt, silt and small pebbles. What I do is put the fossils in a plastic container, pour in the vinegar until it covers the fossils, then drop baking soda into the container. The baking soda causes the vinegar to bubble up violently, and depending how dirty the fossil is, I repeat the process several times until I'm satisfied the fossil is cleaned. I then pull them from the solution and you will notice all the dirt, silt and small pebbles that have been "boiled" out. If I am satisfied, I lightly wash the fossil with water and some dish soap, allow to dirt all day and they turn out very nicely. If this solution doesn't do the job, I repeat the process but this time use hydrogen peroxide and baking soda. This process I originally used on dirty coins with great results, I figured if they worked on coins, why not on fossils. If you are unsure of my process, start with a fossils that you don't mind damaging, but to date, I have not had any negative results. But keep in mind, I am using this on Ice Age bones which are in the beginnings of mineralization, your fossils are completely mineralized already. Look this up this process on RU-vid under coin clearing. The only negative thing is fossils bones will smell like vinegar for a few day. Hope this helps - Sending you a big Howdy from South Texas - Leo (umimak16@gmail.com)

After you've preped, cleaned and dried your specimens you might consider a coating to help preserve and protect them. A coating will also enhance the details by giving them a permanent 'wet look'. I use 4 grams of polyvinyl acetate (PVA) beads dissolved in 100 ml of acetone to 'paint' on my specimens with a horsehair brush (cheap flux brush, easily available and won't dissolve in acetone) it dries instantly and leaves a nice shine. You can read more about fossil preparation snd consolidants here: www.thefossilforum.com/index.php?/topic/104680-consolidants-adhesives-pdf-papers/ If you try something like this make sure your specimen is very dry or the PVA will leave a cloudy coating.

Thanks for sharing this with us.

Thank you Emma ! I am so new at this and this was a great video for me. I do not know what I have on the pieces I am finding in my area they are almost black and I have been scared to try. I will give it a shot on a small one first. Thank you again 🤗

Brilliant Em..❤❤ ..I think overnight may be worth a try though.. ..stay safe..❤

Hey Em, thanks for the video very insightful. Just bought a house thats located on an old chalk quarry in Suffolk and found loads of fossils. Il be purchasing alot of vinegar now for sure! Keep up the good work! 😁

I've used weak solutions of muratic acid to clean rippled limestone but with that it continues to weaken the limestone if not nuetralized afterwards with by adding baking soda in water to stop the acid effect. Not sure that vinegar would have a residual effect, but something to consider.

I heard a saying that made me think of you, Geology rocks but Geography is where it's at.

Ah cool never thought about using vinegar, thought It’ll damage the fossil in some way but looks good 👍 bit of cool news the other day where I live they found a part of the jaw to a species of flyers found usually in Brazil and China 🎉

To neutralize acetic acid, use baking soda disolved in water.... then wash the fosiles..

If you had a couple fossils embeded in rock how would you go about cleaning them to remove some of the rock so that you can see more of the fossil

Hi Emma, pretty sure your ammonite is a Peronoceras sp. and not Dactylioceras. If you look you can see the looped ribs & nodes on the ends of the ribs. I find these on the Yorkshire Coast. Great video as usual by the way.

I put it in hydrogen peroxide first and then white vinegar

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I hope you reply , I need some help. I’m prepping horn coral . Ordovician period. I watch some polishing videos but thought I’d ask advice from you also.

try lemon juice it works better and dont stink as bad

Super video but please please wear gloves when doing anything like this vinegar is an acid and will wreck your skin

you have some superb videos, if you know Gorleston, near Great Yarmouth in Norfolk, UK come look me up as I have a garden crammed with cool finds, including a 6-10" ammonite mostly embedded in a Septarian Nodule and Micrasters (echinoids), the list goes on... thanks for sharing expertise, I will try vinegar and toothbrush method.

You have to take Gloves when you Work with ACID !!!

Belemnites from germany have almost no remains of the matrix and look they are made from marble

Em Gems....Would you be interested in trading an ammonite and a brachiopod for some petrified wood from washington state?

as the saying says : What are those ? vegetation fosils ?¿

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Thank You Emma😘Keep up the (Excess Man Like Keanu Reeves Matrix My G😎) Good Work AsF👍🏿I Love Your Humming version of a Tune (woomp) their it is ;)🎶Your Beautiful, Enough, Worth Everything in the🌍1☝🏿Em You Got This AsF! Emma, Stay Safe and Speak Soon.😘🏠😷xxxx💖

Nails match my car

fangs? )

I'm pretty sure you dissolved that ammonite :P

Hi Gem👋🏿I Hope Your Bank Holiday Gone Swell too! Despite the Lockdown!🏦❤🏝🔐Did You See What I did there again?😷🥁😎up! Hru in Isolation? How's Your Health too?💖I Love Your Work sm!🙏🏿It is The Best and Your The Bestis (if that's even a word?🤣) Ever in the And🌍1☝🏿Keep up the Good Work AsF👍🏿Stay Safe at🏠and Gem💎Speak Soon.💖xxx

It ruined the lovely shine on my fossils. I wish I hadn’t followed these instructions. 😞

My experience with vinegar 40 to 50-odd years ago is that simple vinegar takes time. Commercial acetic acid at higher concentrations IS faster but it can also be brutal. Check it regularly but remember that some fossils do not respond well to even mild acid. Also PLEASE wear gloves, even with mild acids like vinegar. Handling fossils in vinegar and (later in life) photographic chemicals which were both acid and alkali has left me with rather sensitive skin today (aged 68). Also... your workshop WILL smell like a fish and chip shop. Where's the salt?? Barry

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🙌🏿🙏🏿👋🏿💖xxx

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I love your channel not only because of your wonderfully sexy accent but also because of your absolutely stunning beauty and I almost forgot... the wonderful info and look forward to learning more from you.

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