on the subject of rocks, perhaps do short vid of examples of the rocks to find. ie birchi. woodstones, flatstones etc and ones to avoid such as the dogs tooth, flint cherts etc?
Think i defo need to be more informative regards what type of rocks etc, think I need to plan the content more, in the workshop I just drink and wing it and down the beach it’s just the same but without the drink!
some nice finds, and a nice quiet beach. disappointed you didnt join in with the dance. great showing the types of rock to find, the amount of people you see on beach hitting flint, eye injury waiting to happen, similar to hitting the pyrite as i discovered on a pyrite nodule that was full of ammonites, all good after trip to dorchester eye hospital.. wolves not uncommon in that area, hence the film american werewolf in charmouth... if you had of danced as well could have called vid dances with wolves
Nice trip out Dan , same as Yorkshire fossil hunter lol, when I was there I had no idea which rocks those proms were in , good few pointers of what I should be whacking open 🔨
there you go , fresh sub . me and my son have been watching your videos and we figured fossil collecting might just be a nice hobby for both of us to get into , we went on our first trip to a local place I say local its an hour away called Wenlock Edge we found 2 very small fossils which took us the best part of 6 hours but it was fun
That is awesome! My girls would rather be in TKMax than down the beach with me at the moment! Ukfossils.co.uk is a good site for finding places to go discoveringfossils.co.uk is another resource you could use to find some interesting places to go.
You certainly make this look easy. Broke up a few of the dark grey rocks, but no luck. Did find a few small ones in the sandy area, but nothing to get too excited about!
Practice! :) keep on whacking, you’ll soon work out which rocks break well, some types loads better than others, look for all the fine bedding plane lines, on the next video I’ll do detailed view of what I’m looking for and how it informs how I tackle them with a hammer.
Ahh you’ll love it, gets really addictive! Don’t forget to check the tides, you want a good spring tide and start about 2-3 hours after high water on the falling tide, give you loads more beach to search and be loads safer so you don’t get cut off.
I use a machinist hammer, I get mine from a company called Zorro online, minimum 500g(think I use an 800g), Estwing geological hammers are good too but very pricey and the head is pretty small so can be very ‘chippy’ when you are whacking down blocks, the machinist hammers have a larger head and I find they feel better, more of a chunky hit, all goes on what you like and your style of whacking down blocks though.
Te bst fossil I had at Charmouth was a piece of wood. It came out clean and it was even brown with lines and ridges. When wet it still looks like wood. When I tried the fall from the cliffs I uncovered many small ammonites. They were beautifully gold, but tarnished within moments. The rock just crumbles anyway.
I've only been fossil hunting on the Whitby coastline and not often as I live nr Sheffield, this was really interesting to see totally different rocks and stunning little ammonites in them, fantastic 👍
Not a bad trip at all mate, sometimes the little 1 hour sessions can give the best results ! Keep the videos coming mate its giving me some very good tips for when i can finally come visit.
Hey dude, sorry for the late reply, working on some good stuff at the moment, got some new content coming out this month, going to be documenting my new shop/workshop, hopefully be running some 2 Day one on one courses starting September after the family fossil walk summer holidays
I’ll do a video soon and take the good camera down so I can get some good detail of the rocks, there are some easy to spot signs that will help narrow down the search for the rocks which contain ammonites etc, I’ll get on it! Been out of action with a herniated disc in my neck this past few months but that’s nearly 100% now.
Evening Andy, I get them from zoro.co.uk search for machinist hammers and the ones I use are by Kennedy, they are a really good hammer and they do a whole range of different weights to suit, my fave is the 800g one
@@andypowlesland599 cheers dude, not posted any stuff for ages, lost my dad recently and it’s knocked us for six, slowly getting my head sorted out :) more ups than downs now, tried making numerous new videos but just ended up crying! Not good content.
Surprising I’ve only done it a few times, I think the worst I’ve had was stiches from hitting a small rock while holding it, spun around and sliced my hand.
Always possible, fish remains are very rare, there is a much better chance of finding marine reptile remains though. Single ichthyosaur verts are the most common find, plesiosaur are a little harder to come by.
Type in machinists hammer 800g into google, the company I get mine from is called Zorro tools, really good price think mine were about £14, Zorro do a good selection too.
@@TheFossilAcademy I was using a brick hammer I found in my shed last weekend until the handle snapped as I tried all the shops in lyme and all they had was 250 or 500g hammers at more than double the cost of the Zoro ones, ordered Thursday morning and arrived Friday afternoon, less than £12 each and free postage. Thanks again for quick reply and info, might see you down the beach in the future.
Great video. We're off to the Jurassic coast this weekend, hopefully do some fossil hunting. Are we looking for large stones or can any pebble contain something? I guess we just need a hammer?
Best start is the heritage coast centre on the beach at Charmouth, entrance is up the stairs at the front, free entry and loads of good info, you’re looking for the grey rocks with signs of ammonites on them. If there is something on the outside there is a good chance there could be something inside. Don’t forget your goggles too! Safety first.
@@TheFossilAcademy I have actually bent the shafts of some nice all steel hammers trying to get a rock to split along a bedding plane! Is there a name for yours, I don't mean Dave or Brian 😂.. like, a geological five pounder? What's a 500? I assume it's a weight reference. Cheers again, can't wait to get back on the beach there, that Ben area is a fav of mine, never got anything from Church Cliffs areas 🤔👍🍻
@@TheFossilAcademy used to use 1kg head weight and currently using an 800g, but my favourite is the 500g. You can do a lot with a small hammer and a bit of technique! 😉
@@nobbys007 it's a machinist pattern/german engineering pattern hammer. They don't have the chisel on the back like a proper geological hammer and the bevel around the front edge can take some getting used to, but they are a lot cheaper than geological hammers and the metal quality is seemingly much more consistent.
@@jamescarroll2435 just bought two sizes 👍.. so, won't be many big rocks left on the beach 😜 thanks for the info and keep the bids coming. I spent so long wearing down a large nodule that had a large smashed up ammo on one side. I thought that maybe there would be some smaller ammos under the big one.... Wishful thinking! Can't wait to get back there, I usually bring my caravan to manor Farm and spend my evenings in the George 😜🍻 thanks again for the bids, I assume these flat rocks you dig out could have some Echthiosaur bits in? Looks like a similar area and stone that previous bits were found in? Sorry mate, rambled on a bit here 👍🍻🦕
Either a wolf or a large badger. One of the two. Could have easily been someone’s dog........all dogs have a bit of wolf in them, so technically a bit of truth, not much mind.. :)
Is there a bad way to use a hammer on a rock whilst looking for fossils. I'm scared I'm gonna break the fossil :(... I'm new to this, found a couple of teeth at the beach but I wanna do what you do
It’s knowing when to use it that takes time to learn, certain types of rocks break different to others, the fossils in one type of rock will ‘pop’ around the fossils, flatsones, wood stones and birchi nodules usually pop around a fossil because they have a really good bedding plane, loads of layers laid down over time which causes weakness in the rocks which help them to split nicely. Some rocks like Margi stone from Eype, belemnite marls or green nodules don’t have the bedding planes so with those types of stones I wouldn’t hit and bring them back to use the air pens in the workshop. You will break stuff a lot when starting out but you will get better at understanding how the different rocks behave over time and minimise crying on the beach after you’ve just broke in half one of the best finds of your life! I’ve got a nodule in three pieces, I’ll do a video of how to put them back together and show you how they can be saved.
on the subject of rocks, perhaps do short vid of examples of the rocks to find. ie birchi. woodstones, flatstones etc and ones to avoid such as the dogs tooth, flint cherts etc?
Think i defo need to be more informative regards what type of rocks etc, think I need to plan the content more, in the workshop I just drink and wing it and down the beach it’s just the same but without the drink!
Dang! You are very precise with your hammer strikes.
some nice finds, and a nice quiet beach. disappointed you didnt join in with the dance. great showing the types of rock to find, the amount of people you see on beach hitting flint, eye injury waiting to happen, similar to hitting the pyrite as i discovered on a pyrite nodule that was full of ammonites, all good after trip to dorchester eye hospital.. wolves not uncommon in that area, hence the film american werewolf in charmouth... if you had of danced as well could have called vid dances with wolves
Nice trip out Dan , same as Yorkshire fossil hunter lol, when I was there I had no idea which rocks those proms were in , good few pointers of what I should be whacking open 🔨
If in doubt, give it a clout.... that’s the mantra that’s always stood me in good stead.
instablaster.
there you go , fresh sub .
me and my son have been watching your videos and we figured fossil collecting might just be a nice hobby for both of us to get into , we went on our first trip to a local place I say local its an hour away called Wenlock Edge we found 2 very small fossils which took us the best part of 6 hours but it was fun
That is awesome! My girls would rather be in TKMax than down the beach with me at the moment! Ukfossils.co.uk is a good site for finding places to go discoveringfossils.co.uk is another resource you could use to find some interesting places to go.
Brilliant stuff Dan!
Cheers dude :)
Thank you for the nice video .👍
You certainly make this look easy. Broke up a few of the dark grey rocks, but no luck. Did find a few small ones in the sandy area, but nothing to get too excited about!
Practice! :) keep on whacking, you’ll soon work out which rocks break well, some types loads better than others, look for all the fine bedding plane lines, on the next video I’ll do detailed view of what I’m looking for and how it informs how I tackle them with a hammer.
Nice to see you out fossil hunting. Keep up the great vids!
Cheers dude, was nice to be out
Coming to charmouth in may for a fossil hunt my first time. Great video I know what to look for now.
Ahh you’ll love it, gets really addictive! Don’t forget to check the tides, you want a good spring tide and start about 2-3 hours after high water on the falling tide, give you loads more beach to search and be loads safer so you don’t get cut off.
@@TheFossilAcademy Thankyou can’t wait. I spend alot time beach combing in Sussex. what size hammer is best.
I use a machinist hammer, I get mine from a company called Zorro online, minimum 500g(think I use an 800g), Estwing geological hammers are good too but very pricey and the head is pretty small so can be very ‘chippy’ when you are whacking down blocks, the machinist hammers have a larger head and I find they feel better, more of a chunky hit, all goes on what you like and your style of whacking down blocks though.
Te bst fossil I had at Charmouth was a piece of wood. It came out clean and it was even brown with lines and ridges. When wet it still looks like wood. When I tried the fall from the cliffs I uncovered many small ammonites. They were beautifully gold, but tarnished within moments. The rock just crumbles anyway.
I've only been fossil hunting on the Whitby coastline and not often as I live nr Sheffield, this was really interesting to see totally different rocks and stunning little ammonites in them, fantastic 👍
Yorkshire is an awesome place to collect, where I started out, Dorset is a brilliant place to collect and well worth a visit.
Not a bad trip at all mate, sometimes the little 1 hour sessions can give the best results ! Keep the videos coming mate its giving me some very good tips for when i can finally come visit.
Give us a shout when you do and I’ll pop down the beach family shizzle permitting
@@TheFossilAcademy will do buddy!!
Great video, great personality, and love the variety of videos you put out. Also very informative.
Sorry dude only just saw this, cheers for the kind words.
love to see some of the large ammonites you have been working on since your last video. Can you do a video showing them? thanks
Hey dude, sorry for the late reply, working on some good stuff at the moment, got some new content coming out this month, going to be documenting my new shop/workshop, hopefully be running some 2 Day one on one courses starting September after the family fossil walk summer holidays
@@TheFossilAcademy sounds good, can't wait.... Happy days
What is it you look for, for finding samples in the rocks as we only found fossils in the hard clay? We must have smashed about rocks and found nowt.
I’ll do a video soon and take the good camera down so I can get some good detail of the rocks, there are some easy to spot signs that will help narrow down the search for the rocks which contain ammonites etc, I’ll get on it! Been out of action with a herniated disc in my neck this past few months but that’s nearly 100% now.
What type of hammer are you using :-) and where can I purchase on 👍🏻
Evening Andy, I get them from zoro.co.uk search for machinist hammers and the ones I use are by Kennedy, they are a really good hammer and they do a whole range of different weights to suit, my fave is the 800g one
That’s super thankyou! And great videos 🤙🏼
@@andypowlesland599 cheers dude, not posted any stuff for ages, lost my dad recently and it’s knocked us for six, slowly getting my head sorted out :) more ups than downs now, tried making numerous new videos but just ended up crying! Not good content.
Cayton bay is good for them found some good bits on there some bits I couldn't get as no tools on the day
Yes dan, get down on that beach! ⚒
That hammer looks to be about a kilo?
I took the family to Charmouth today, and we found a few fossils by the land slide.
Go on then, how many times have you hit your thumb?
Surprising I’ve only done it a few times, I think the worst I’ve had was stiches from hitting a small rock while holding it, spun around and sliced my hand.
what's the Lickey hood of finding fossil marine reptiles or fish on the beach
Always possible, fish remains are very rare, there is a much better chance of finding marine reptile remains though. Single ichthyosaur verts are the most common find, plesiosaur are a little harder to come by.
@@TheFossilAcademy thanks I'm hoping to have a go looking on that beach
hi, where u find it?:)
What size hammer are you using and where did you get it?, ive been advised to go for an 800g one but can't seem to find anything over 500g
Type in machinists hammer 800g into google, the company I get mine from is called Zorro tools, really good price think mine were about £14, Zorro do a good selection too.
@@TheFossilAcademy many thanks for the fast reply, just ordered a couple from them.
@@psm2day I used to use an Estwing geological hammer but these are so much better for me. Would never go back now.
@@TheFossilAcademy I was using a brick hammer I found in my shed last weekend until the handle snapped as I tried all the shops in lyme and all they had was 250 or 500g hammers at more than double the cost of the Zoro ones, ordered Thursday morning and arrived Friday afternoon, less than £12 each and free postage.
Thanks again for quick reply and info, might see you down the beach in the future.
@@psm2day if you see me give us a shout and I’ll come over for a chinwag
Great video. We're off to the Jurassic coast this weekend, hopefully do some fossil hunting. Are we looking for large stones or can any pebble contain something? I guess we just need a hammer?
Best start is the heritage coast centre on the beach at Charmouth, entrance is up the stairs at the front, free entry and loads of good info, you’re looking for the grey rocks with signs of ammonites on them. If there is something on the outside there is a good chance there could be something inside. Don’t forget your goggles too! Safety first.
@@TheFossilAcademy Many thanks for responding, yes, we will head for the heritage centre first. Will report back if we find anything. Cheers
Hi Dan, where did you buy the hammer and how much please?
Got it from The Wobbly Fossiler, you can find him on Instagram, send him a pm on there, I bet he could sort you one out. Lovely lad, heart of gold.
Just found the site ont tinterweb, called zoro.co.uk
Thanks for this. You have just made me buy a bigger hammer! 😁🦕
Go big or go home! Think that one is an 800, really nice size. Minimum size I’d say would be a 500, can do quite a bit of damage with a 500
@@TheFossilAcademy I have actually bent the shafts of some nice all steel hammers trying to get a rock to split along a bedding plane! Is there a name for yours, I don't mean Dave or Brian 😂.. like, a geological five pounder? What's a 500? I assume it's a weight reference. Cheers again, can't wait to get back on the beach there, that Ben area is a fav of mine, never got anything from Church Cliffs areas 🤔👍🍻
@@TheFossilAcademy used to use 1kg head weight and currently using an 800g, but my favourite is the 500g. You can do a lot with a small hammer and a bit of technique! 😉
@@nobbys007 it's a machinist pattern/german engineering pattern hammer. They don't have the chisel on the back like a proper geological hammer and the bevel around the front edge can take some getting used to, but they are a lot cheaper than geological hammers and the metal quality is seemingly much more consistent.
@@jamescarroll2435 just bought two sizes 👍.. so, won't be many big rocks left on the beach 😜 thanks for the info and keep the bids coming. I spent so long wearing down a large nodule that had a large smashed up ammo on one side. I thought that maybe there would be some smaller ammos under the big one.... Wishful thinking! Can't wait to get back there, I usually bring my caravan to manor Farm and spend my evenings in the George 😜🍻 thanks again for the bids, I assume these flat rocks you dig out could have some Echthiosaur bits in? Looks like a similar area and stone that previous bits were found in? Sorry mate, rambled on a bit here 👍🍻🦕
Just to clarify; the wolf thing WAS a joke, right?
Either a wolf or a large badger. One of the two. Could have easily been someone’s dog........all dogs have a bit of wolf in them, so technically a bit of truth, not much mind.. :)
Is there a bad way to use a hammer on a rock whilst looking for fossils. I'm scared I'm gonna break the fossil :(... I'm new to this, found a couple of teeth at the beach but I wanna do what you do
It’s knowing when to use it that takes time to learn, certain types of rocks break different to others, the fossils in one type of rock will ‘pop’ around the fossils, flatsones, wood stones and birchi nodules usually pop around a fossil because they have a really good bedding plane, loads of layers laid down over time which causes weakness in the rocks which help them to split nicely. Some rocks like Margi stone from Eype, belemnite marls or green nodules don’t have the bedding planes so with those types of stones I wouldn’t hit and bring them back to use the air pens in the workshop. You will break stuff a lot when starting out but you will get better at understanding how the different rocks behave over time and minimise crying on the beach after you’ve just broke in half one of the best finds of your life! I’ve got a nodule in three pieces, I’ll do a video of how to put them back together and show you how they can be saved.
thank's :-)
Legendary
I have benn to charmouth before and found a fossil leg bone that belonged to a bird
Nice
Beware wolves and dancing people - lol 🤣
Especially dancing folk...........
woo!
Jack Sparrow? Is that you?
not seeker but destroyer
Dirty dino fossils