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Field CollectingHow to organize/ were to put specimens

13th Jan 2019 17:34 UTCAdamOnMindat

Hi everyone,

I'm fairly new to rockhounding, and i would like to know where to put all the specimens I found in a way that it doesn't take up too much room and doesn't damage the rocks and minerals. Thanks!

13th Jan 2019 17:55 UTCDonald B Peck Expert

Hi Adam,

Difficult to answer your question without knowing your living situation. How much space do you have? How many, and of what size, do you want to display? How many and of what size do you want to store?

For either display or storage cabinets, you can either buy or build what you need. In the latter case, of course you would need some woodworking skills and tools. Although I have moved since, I built shallow glass fronted cases, with glass shelves, above cases with drawers. If you are to buy your cases, either storage or display, it is a matter of finding what fits the space you have and what appeals to you. I have seen several collectors use glass enclosed dish cabinets for display, also map or document cabinets with relatively shallow drawers for storage.

If there is an IKEA store near you, look to see what they have. You might look, also, in some of the used furniture shops.

Good luck,

Don

13th Jan 2019 18:11 UTCBob Harman

Like DON P says. You need to give more info. Your space, the size of your specimens, whether they are self-collected or bought etc etc etc. Do you want them actually on display or put away in boxes or drawers (often times then forgotten....). Be wary of starting out with putting them out of sight; often times they will become forgotten. Museums are famous for making this mistake. Keep your specimens all or mostly in view or in full sight.

But, the one thing that I found most important is that to develop a " true collection"rather than just an "accumulation", you need to only save the best and get rid of the rest. Repeatedly self collecting large amounts of specimens is a recipe for disaster. After each collecting trip, the collected specimens always should each be prepped and labeled, with only the best kept. Otherwise very soon you will begin to have bucketfuls of unprepared and poorly labeled rocks. Not a collection, but an accumulation.

CHEERS.....BOB

13th Jan 2019 21:08 UTCDoug Schonewald

Adam,

You need to even specify if you want to display them or just store them. I don't have any displays in my home. I just don't have the room. I simply wrap them and store them using inexpensive LABELED plastic boxes and discarded plastic bags. The plastic bag idea came from a thread on this forum and is one of the best simple ideas I've seen. No more fuzz from paper towels, no more brittle newspapers, and the bags cost absolutely nothing. The most important thing is to label your specimens carefully and religiously. NEVER put a specimen away that isn't properly labeled

15th Jan 2019 16:29 UTCRocky Mineralowicz

I am not really a collector but do save mostly reference samples. These I store but do not display. I don't have a lot of room nor do I want to spent a lot.

I am using flattish corrugated cardboard boxes with a fold over top that are about 1 3/4" - 2" deep. I hot glued dividers inside. I identified the samples are identified with labels inside the lid. A labeled on the outside front of the box can be read from the front when they are stacked on a book shelf.

They came from a bunch of light fixtures I bought and also found a laptop box and some other similar ones.

I did a youtube video if you want to see them or have trouble sleeping. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zbTRDvcClJc&t=1s

It isn't pretty but it works for me.

15th Jan 2019 18:14 UTCJon Aurich

. I use an old machinists tool box, a lot of drawers dividers and it locks.

17th Jan 2019 18:25 UTCHiro Inukai

I just finished setting up the top shelf of my display cabinet. It took some time, and it’s not perfect by any means, but it now looks finished. There’s no particular rhyme or reason for the arrangement of species, except I put the ones I like closer to the front.

The main components of my setup are:

Euro-type boxes for each specimen

Custom made thermoplastic mounts or preformed acrylic mounts

Matte craft foam for the base of the box

Printed labels (white text on black is best done on a laser printer because it uses a LOT of ink/toner) mounted to cardstock

Display stands

Display cabinet from IKEA

LED strip lights from Amazon (which were a pain to install)

In retrospect I may need to reprint the labels because the copy paper might not be acid free. The obverse has the species, chemical formula, and locality; the reverse (not shown) has ID numbers. Boxes are labeled underneath with the same info.

Next step is to work on the thumbnails....hopefully this gives some idea of what is possible for organizing and displaying a collection.

18th Jan 2019 09:34 UTCLuca Baralis Expert

Nice display! And stylish labels, but sure they will eat a lot of toner!

By the way, I think that if labels are outside the boxes you don't severely need acid-free paper.

18th Jan 2019 12:40 UTCDale Foster Manager

I quite like these for the smaller specimens:

Metal Filing Cabinets

If you use the fold up card trays, each drawer can hold up to 21 of the 3"x2" trays:

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