The samples must be cleaned to remove the dirt and contaminating material using a sterile scalpel blade a sand blaster.

A drilling tool will be used when the dirt is too hard to be removed by the other two methods.

It is important to handle the samples with gloves, removing all the traces of soil and dirt.

A control sample, of which the collagen composition is known, has to be prepared to give us enough confidence that we will have a reliable set of results.