Shoutout to the old school dental pick over the fancy plastic probe

I was cleaning some small finds from a dig site near Tucson last spring, mostly pottery shards and a few bone fragments. For years I used those new plastic probes they sell in kits, thinking they were safer for delicate stuff. But after breaking a thin piece of shell with one, I switched back to my grandpa's old steel dental pick. The metal tip is way finer, so you can get into tiny cracks without applying much pressure at all. I could flick off a speck of dirt without even touching the artifact surface. The plastic ones are too thick and bend, so you end up pushing harder. That one swap saved a whole tray of fragile bits. Anyone else have a simple tool they went back to that just works better?

3 comments

3 Comments

the_olivia2mo ago

My old metal awl beats any new plastic scraper for cleaning fossils.

jade_grant951mo ago

Tried a plastic dental pick on some pottery shards once. Just snapped under pressure. Grabbed an old metal crochet hook and it cleaned everything out perfectly.

lopez.ivan2mo ago

Spot on about the metal picks. I was using a plastic probe to clean some old coins and it just smeared the gunk around. Switched to a steel scribe and it was like magic. Sounds like @the_olivia gets it too with her awl, sometimes the old stuff is just built right.