Spent $45 on a geology hammer and chisel set... cracked my first rock and found a fossil inside

I was out near a creek bed north of town poking around for arrowheads or anything interesting. Bought this cheap set from a hardware store thinking it would break after one use. First big rock I split had a clear leaf imprint from what looked like a fern. Now I am hooked on trying to find more but I am worried the chisel is already getting dull. Has anyone else found something unexpected just by breaking open random rocks?

2 comments

2 Comments

craig.nathan4d ago

...so my buddy Mike found a trilobite in a parking lot rock. He was just breaking up some chunks of limestone for a garden wall, not even thinking about it. Split one open and there it was, this perfect spiral shaped thing with little segments. He still has it sitting on his desk, he calls it his "driveway fossil." The chisel got dull pretty quick though, he said he had to sharpen it after maybe 20 rocks. That fern imprint you found sounds sweet, maybe try hitting up some construction sites where they dig up fresh ground, that's where Mike got most of his random finds.

wren_jackson3d agoProlific Poster

Yeah, tell Mike to get a cheap set of masonry chisels from Harbor Freight next time, they're soft enough to sharpen easy and you won't care if they get chipped. Also, splitting limestone along the bedding planes works way better if you tap gently along the edges instead of just whacking the middle. That "driveway fossil" thing is legit though, I've pulled brachiopods out of landscaping gravel more times than I can count.