Searching through creek gravel or a bag of fossil material is easier when you can sift out the smaller material and examine what remains. We bought our SE sifter in February 2024 after buying a similar one in 2023, and it has become a useful part of our fossil-hunting equipment.
We bought it for use in water, but we’ve also used it on dry material. Our outings have included Big Brook Preserve, Poricy Park, and local creeks and streams, as well as sorting purchased and gifted fossil bags at home. While sifting, we’ve found brachiopods, belemnites, shark teeth, and other fossils.
View the SE fossil sifter on Amazon.
Its lightweight, durable design and flat screen have worked well for us. Carrying it required an adjustment, though: it was slightly too large for our daypacks and had no attachment point. Here’s what we like about it and how we adapted ours for the walk to the creek.
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Using the Sifter in Water and With Dry Material
We purchased this sifter primarily for use in water. We’ve used it while looking for fossils at Big Brook Preserve, Poricy Park, and local creeks and streams. Sifting has helped us find brachiopods, belemnites, shark teeth, and other fossils.
We also use it at home with purchased or gifted bags of material. These have included two fossil bags from Aurora Fossil Museum, a smaller bag purchased at Dinosaur State Park in Connecticut, and several others.
A bag from Hiddenite in North Carolina gave us a different rock-and-mineral sorting experience. Although we bought the sifter for creek outings, we’ve found it useful with both wet and dry material.
A Flat Screen That Makes Finds Easier to Examine
The flat screen is one of my favorite features. It provides plenty of viewing area to examine material left behind after sifting and to look for fossils among the rocks.
The sifter’s color is useful, too. If we set it down and wade farther along the creek, it is easy to spot when we look back.
Its size works well for sifting, giving us room to examine our finds. That same size makes it less convenient to fit in a daypack, so we changed how we carry ours.
Light to Carry and Durable in Use
The sifter feels light, which I appreciate when I carry it along with our other fossil-hunting equipment. It has also held up well while we’ve used it in creeks and sorted material at home.
So far, we’ve noticed only a few light scratches—the kind of marks I would expect from contact with rocks. Beyond those, we haven’t seen signs of wear.
That combination of light weight and durability has made it a useful tool for our outings.
How We Carry Our Sifters
The main drawback we’ve found is carrying the sifter to and from a site. Its size is great for sifting, but it is slightly too large to fit inside our daypacks. It also came without a way to attach it to a pack.
I drilled a hole in each of our two sifters and added a carabiner so we could clip them to the outside of our packs. That’s been our solution for carrying them without trying to fit them inside.
This was my own modification, rather than a feature supplied with the sifter.
Our Overall Experience
This sifter has worked well for the fossil hunting we enjoy. Its flat screen gives us room to examine material; it is light to carry, and it has held up well to contact with rocks.
The main tradeoff is its size when packing for an outing. Attaching ours to the outside of our daypacks has made that easier to manage.
From creek gravel to fossil bags at home, we’ve found it useful for slowing down, sorting through material, and looking closely at what remains.
If you would like to explore the sifter we purchased in February 2024, you can view the SE fossil sifter on Amazon.
If you’re getting started, our Fossils 101 guide introduces the basics of recognizing and enjoying fossils. Our Fossil Places guide offers destinations to research, while our Gear guide brings together equipment ideas for outdoor adventures.
Before taking a sifter or other collecting tools to a location, check its current rules to confirm what activities and collecting are permitted.
Adventure Never Gets Old™