The smallest, finest fossil preparation stylus in the world! 0.5mm stone-grade tungsten carbide chisel stylus for the ZPT-BL Balaur air scribe. 

For use with the 1.5/0.5mm head (the shank is 1.5mm diameter - only the very tip is 0.5mm).

Only suitable for use under very high magnification/microscope. Tungsten carbide retains its shape extremely well and requires very little sharpening, but it is brittle. At diameters as small as this, a lot of care needs to be taken not to break it. DO NOT attempt to use this stylus unless you are working under very high magnification and the job requires such a fine stylus. 

We developed this stylus to fulfil a need that we have personally found in our own preparation. Working under a microscope at 40X magnification, a 1.5mm stylus looked and felt a bit like a telegraph pole, so we made this one to suit the job. We've been using the same one for 50+ hours without breakage, although it has worn and needed resharpening (inveitable at such a small diameter). If you choose to purchase this stylus, common sense must prevail - keep the pressures very low (under 1 Bar/15 PSI) and work gently. 

The styli we use in our Balaur are fitted with a locking mechanism to prevent rotation. This means you can sharpen the point, and if you do sharpen it off centre it won't matter.