| Summary: | <p>The tools for interpreting fission-track data are evolving apace, but, even
so, the outcomes cannot be better than the data. Recent studies showed that
track etching and observation affect confined-track length measurements. We
investigated the effects of grain orientation, polishing, etching and
observation on fission-track counts in apatite. Our findings throw light on
the phenomena that affect the track counts and hence the sample ages,
whilst raising the question: what counts as an etched surface track? This is
pertinent to manual and automatic track counts and to designing training
strategies for neural networks. Counting prism faces and using the <span class="inline-formula"><i>ζ</i></span> calibration for age calculation are assumed to deal with most etching- and counting-related factors. However, prism faces are not unproblematic for counting, and other surface orientations are not unusable. Our results suggest that a reinvestigation of the etching properties of different apatite faces could increase the range useful for dating and lift a significant restriction for provenance studies.</p>
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