"Nan, a sturdy wide putty knife works good. You should do your splitting outside on the ground. Just stand it on edge, find a bedding plane and whack away. I also have a table knife whish I shortened down and ground a chisel edge on for smaller pieces of shale. Make sure to wrap your fossils real good, as many can be very soft and delicate. If you have a friendly dentist, ask him to save his worn out dental tools for you. They're great for cleaning small areas around your fossils. And don't worry if you ruin a fossil or two. It's all part of the learning process.
Don"

"Ya, you have to figure that geologically speaking , the Alps are still young and growing. At the top of the pass is the little ski town of Bormio. You can walk up a trail a few hundred feet and step into Switzerland. It's also the highest paved road in Europe. You can tell how young those mountains are by how rugged they are. They're not worn down by erosion. Hey, I felt bad about loosing all of that stuff, but at least I got out of a bad marriage.
Don"