A collector need dress appropriately for collecting trips, taking into account the climate and terrain of the area. Sturdy footwear, such as walking or hiking boots with steel toes, are recommended. A hammer, chisel and wrapping materials are the basic equipment required for fossil collecting, along with a stout rucksack or canvas bag for carrying equipment and fossil finds. The steel of many ordinary hammers is too soft for use on most type of rock. The steel may splinter, and the flying fragments cause injury to the person using the hammer, or others in the vicinity. The hammer should always strike away from the body. The head of a geological hammer or rock pick is made from specially hardened steel designed for use on rocks. The head is either firmly attached to a wooden shaft, or the hammer have the head and the shaft formed from one piece of steel. The head may have any combination of a square face, a tapered point, or a straight chisel edge. The point of such picks are not meant for striking rock directly, but for tapping rock (such as shale) open along planes and for prying: the hammer end is used for striking.
