Custom-assembled sandblasting equipment at the Burke Memorial Museum, University of Washington, proved efficient in removing matrix from vertebrate fossils. The assembly resembles the dust abrasion apparatus used by conservators to clean ethnological and historical specimens. Although the action is too coarse for the final steps of freeing a fossil, exposed portions of the bone can be safely protected from the blast by thin layers of paraffin wax. The equipment is fully described and illustrated, with sources of supply indicated. Charts compare the efficiency of the process with several alternative methods. -- AATA