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Hello, I'm considering picking up this section of Didymoceras cheyennense (I believe living chamber) from the Pierre shale of Pennington county, South Dakota, USA. However I found out that a lacquer layer has been applied to it to accentuate the iridescence. Is this something that can be removed without damaging the ammonite? And would I use something like acetone to remove it? Thank you.

Teeth are 1.19 and 1.09 inches, respectively. How do I remove the ugly, glued sand tip on tooth 1? Acetone? All tips appreciated! Tooth 1: Tooth 2 (It's small but polka dotted!):

...or just a very bad idea? This is a partial Spinosaurid tooth. The other side of the tooth is completely missing. Areas of the tooth are covered with what I believe is glue mixed with sand or matrix. I really don't like the look of this Moroccon method to "improve" teeth. I already tried to rub the glue/sand mixture off with a acetone covered rag and the tooth looks a bit better than before (although the tip fell off and I had to reattach it with some superglue). Now I am thinking about soaking the tooth in acetone to remove all this glue/ sand mixture and then put it back together with just glue. Could this result in the whole tooth falling apart, as it might be consolidated with glue? What would you do, giving the fact that the tooth was very inexpensive but I still do not like the idea of destroying it? Thanks!

Hi all. I have a piece of matrix that has been consolidated in paraloid. How long do I soak it in acetone to dissolve the consolidation? Thank you in advance.

hi guys i need to stabilise quite a lot of sth stuff at the moment so am need of quite a bit of paraloid b-72 and acetone, maybe 200g paraloid and 500 g acetone, im not quite sure on what ratio to use so any help/advice would be great, in return, ask for any kid of fossil, i have quite a wide variety that i can offer

Hey everyone, Today I worked on applying vinac to plant fossils and messed up on one fossil and I was wondering if there was anyway to remove vinac from a fossil? Could acetone work? Any suggestions are wanted! Thanks!

Hey everyone, Today I am going to be creating vinac with acetone and I was wondering if this type of respirator will work against acetone. It’s a 3M performance respirator with p100. Thanks!

Hey there, im hoping some of the clever folks here might be able to offer some advice on a prep im working on. Im currently prepping a large 150 - 200 pound block. In the initial prep, a part of the block cracked and opened up a small crevice. This crevice did not beak completely into two pieces, it was still held together by the un removed matrix surrounding the fossil. At the time, i didn't want this to slowly shake into a bigger crack or lose pieces due to the vibration of the air tools. There was/is a lot more prep to do and between prep and flipping over a large block i was worried about loosing pieces. So i filled this gap with super glue with the idea that i could reverse this later on and join the two pieces together much tighter so the crack would disappear or be less noticeable. As the prep continues, im getting closer to the time when im going to have to re glue the pieces. The problem is that a lot of small pieces of the fossil are glued back on around the area of the break. So i need to figure a way to dissolve the glue at the break but not in the area around the break. Normally i would place the entire fossil in a tub of acetone to dissolve the glue from the joint and then glue the two pieces back together. But since there are a lot of small, non descript pieces close to the break, im reluctant to do this. I already tried poring acetone over the break to try to separate the two pieces but this didnt work. This would all be easier if the fossil was not so large, heavy and hard to move. I may end up having to soak the whole thing in acetone to dissolve this joint but i want to avoid this if possible. Does anyone have any suggestions for alternate ways to remedy this problem? Hard to photograph this fossil so here is a basic drawing of the problem. Nick

Hello all, I started collecting fossils as a hobby a few years ago, trusting sources without question. I recently bought my first expensive fossil (Keichousaurus) online. I know they are often faked (or at least heavily restored) so I want to confirm that mine is legitimate. I did a scrape test which revealed more bone so that was good. However, I did an acetone test on a couple of the bones and the bones faded a little bit and the q tip I used picked up some dark grey/black. I also tried it on the matrix in three places which pulled up even more black on the q tip (more than the fossil had done). I was wondering if this is normal or not. Can you please help me determine if my Kiechousaurus is genuine? The picture shows one arm untouched (the top of the picture) which you can see is a bit darker than the bottom arm which has been swiped with acetone. Thanks for your help!

I just received what I thought was pure acetone for mixing with Paraloid B72. However there is an additive of denatonium benzoate, which I assume is a required bittering agent to prevent consumption. Will this cause any issues?

I am going to feel bad if there is already a post with as much information as I am looking for, but I can't seem to find one. Essentially, I am having a hard time finding the proper consolidation materials. I have never prepped before, and I am going to be starting my first project this weekend. That being said, the extent of my knowledge of sealants comes from research on this forum. I am looking for the right materials to use (with or without acetone dilute) to keep my fossils from being damaged while working on some Moroccan matrix. I'm not finding anywhere reliable to purchase PVA B-15, Butvar, or anything of the sort. Is there a more easily accessible material I can work with? I need very little at this point in time, and not necessarily something expensive or overly high-quality as the items I will be working with are small and cheap. What are other alternatives that people use, and what are the benefits of each of them? I am eager to know all there is to know, and I've been slowly going down the list of each of the topics in this thread hoping to find what I'm looking for!

JohnBrewer kindly sent me some paraloid, i've gone out and bought some 98% acetone and a glass jar. How much Paraloid should i put into a small coffee jar? Thanks

Every time I use Butvar in acetone (10% w/v) on a fossil, I get a white milky residue that is very difficult to clean off. I was told that the relative humidity had to be below 50% to avoid the white residue, but in Florida that does not happen that often. Questions: 1) How can I pull off the white residue without damaging the mammal fossil (manatee skull)? 2) Will a 5-10% PVA solution in ethanol work better in a high humidity environment than Butvar? 3) Would dissolving Butvar in ethanol work better than in acetone for the white residue? Any help is appreciated. Thanks. TrilobiteAndrew