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I've been prepping my fossils manually for years. Glue is my friend and my worst enemy. For some of my delicate micros, one drop is more than enough to encase the tiny object AND glue it to whatever surface on which it rests. I've succeeded in gluing my fossils to silicone mats, pin points, and my fingers through plastic gloves after the glue ate through the gloves. Lately I've settled on wax paper and lots of rolling the piece around to keep it from pooling when the glue invariably rolls off the surface of less porous shells. It still sticks to the wax , but at least the wax peels off the paper and comes off with a bit of acetone and a delicate touch. There has to be a better way to do this with less permeable surfaces. What do you do to keep from gluing your pieces to the table?

Hi everyone, would Butvar B-76 be good to help seal and stabalize a leaf fossil in shale? Would I just put it on the surface or submerge the whole piece in the solution? I'd like to keep the fossil looking as natural as possible, not glossy at all. Thanks!

Its been a minute since I've posted About 20 years ago while doing research online for fossil preservation I read somewhere that curators used "B-72" as adhesive and consolidate. so I did some digging and found a supplier that offered up free samples. I ordered some and after it arrived we were moving and it was packed away. the next couple of places I lived didn't afford me the space to do my hobbies and prep my fossils. Much time has passed and I am now able to haul out some of those fossils and work on them. I dug out the "B-72" I had ordered years before and started to look up info on how to properly mix my "B-72". Low and behold I didn't realize that there are other products that use the same handle "B-72". I now see its "Paraloid B-72" or "Butvar B-76" that are most commonly used for this purpose. So what's the difference?, and can this "Butvar B-72" be used? Is there or could there be any negative or undesirable effects from this stuff? will it ruin my fossils? If it can be used, does one dilute it the same as the other products? what W/V % should be mixed for consolidating vs using as an adhesive? Thanks for any input

Hello again! I have done my first experiment with Butvar 76 after drying my Green River fish fossils for 15 days. For this first experiment I selected a thin partially complete Diplomystus from the lower quality end of my haul last month. I gently blew compressed air over the fossil which had been picked lightly with a dental tool, then applied my mix of Butvar-76 and acetone. I found different recommendations for the ratio, and probably used to much powder in my solution because as you can see, upon returning from work I found that small bubbles were trapped inside. I assume the surface tension was too high to allow them to escape as a result of using too thick Butvar. For my next experiment I will thin it out, and brush on thin coats and apply them one at a time instead of thickly applying it. I also noticed that some of the stone dust washed into the solution above the fossils midsection in the depressions between the thin bones. Feel free to critique my first attempt and give any advice.

Hi - I’ve had a hard time locating museum quality butvar - most particularly the the high molecular weight versions B-98. Could anyone point me to a source that could supply in less than large bulk quantity? many thanks in advance.

Hi Fossil Forum, I joined this forum for help with an issue that is baffling me, I have used butvar for many years. I make multiple liters at a time and usually slowly mix the butvar in over the course of 24-72 hours to prevent clumping. This is a standard 5% solution, 50g to 1000mL. I was in a rush, and I basically dumped all the powder into the solvent at once. After a couple days and stirring often, the solution seemed stable and the clumps were gone. We then filtered it into smaller bottles then, after a few days the resin congealed, almost to like a jello looking consistency in some of the bottles. I realize I should have stuck to the original method, but I am trying to rule out other possible reasons for this reaction. Has anyone else had a similar outcome of mixing butvar too fast, I realize many of you only mix small amounts at a time.

A friend took me out to a spot on a creek he owns where you can find Miocene-era fossils. Found several whale bones, all black in color, except this large vertebra which is all white. My friend said I needed to stabilize the white ones, as they would crumble over time otherwise. Looking through the various posts on here I bought some butvar, but found a couple methods that people talked about for use. Completely submerge the fossil, paint brush on the solution, or use a turkey baster to squirt it on? Not sure how to proceed. After dissolving the butvar into acetone, which method is the best for vertebra? If I submerge it, which sounds like it might be the best for stabilizing (as it would permeate to the core), how do you move it from the submersion tank to a spot to dry? It doesn’t fall apart once you set it in butvar/aceatone solution for a while? I have let the vertebra dry for several months now. This is my first attempt at preserving a fossil so any tips/suggestions would be appreciated. Thanks in advance.

Where do you guys buy your prep supplies? I've looked on line and have mixed feelings about some of the places that do offer this kind of stuff. I'm sure people here have their favorite sellers who won't rip a rookie like me off. Thanks!!!!

Ok I have a large mostly complete bison skull I need to consolidate as it has started flaking. I have some butvar 76 and acetone, which I understand I should mix at a ratio of 1:50 for stabilizing. I have soaked old gun stocks I mb acetone in aluminum pans in the past, I am thinking of doing this as it appears for stabilization you want to submerge the skull for about 10 minutes, not just pour it or paint it on correct?

Dozens of articles written about stabilizing crumbly specimens but I have yet to find someone who can make me feel confident about a solution. I kayak rivers and find tusks and crumbly bones on the sandbars. They are wet or at least half wet from contact with the ground. The stabilizer must dry quickly, be reversible and work on a wet specimens. Currently I leave most of them where I find them because I cannot come up with a good solution.

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!

Hi Everyone, I recently decided to start preserving all of my pleistocene fossils and feel that Butvar-76 would be the best option. My problem is I can't find it anywhere. I contacted the Florida Paleontological Society and they said they don't carry it anymore. They recommended I either use Duco Cement in acetone or to look on the Museum Service Corporation website. On the Museum Service Corporation website it says that Butvar-76 has been discontinued, but they have an equivalent called B08SY Resin. Here's what they have listed: Butvar Resins White, free flowing powders. Generally soluble in alcohols, acetone and aromatic hydrocarbons. Forms films similar to polyvinyl acetate and is suggested as picture varnishes. Widely used to waterproof textiles. The films resist degradation by sunlight and heat. Average molecular weight is 30-34,000. Butvar B-76 has been discontinued. B08SY Resin is considered an equivalent resin to Butvar B-76, from a different supplier. It utilizes the same Polyvinyl Butyral resin as Butvar B-76. B08SY resin has the same solubility as Butvar B-76, but has a smaller grain size. Contact Museum Services Corporation for additional information, or to acquire a sample for testing purposes. F4503-001 B08SY 1 kilogram $34.00 F4504-001 B-79 1 kilogram $31.09 F4505-001 B-90 1 kilogram $25.08 F4501-001 B-98 1 kilogram $46.12 Has anyone bought B08SY or know where I can still get Butvar-76? If not, are there any consolidants that you would recommend using instead?

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

This tooth in matrix has been sitting on a local diver's desk for about three years, under a dust cover, and has remained very stable. We think the matrix is essentially a phosphatic nodule. It's basically a piece of the ACE River Basin river bottom, and obviously it's an amazing specimen. I wanted to prep. it using a hardener, but I've never prepped any fossils before, and wasn't sure which product that I should use. I've heard of Butvar, of course and know people use it on bone, but this isn't bone, it's more mineral. Should I dip, or brush? It would seem a lot cheaper to brush it on. I'd also like something that would be water proof, afterwards. Any thoughts or ideas would be greatly appreciated. I'd also like some direction on a reputable seller of the product. Any folks here in that biz? If you are, then I'd rather throw the biz to a member, but I will need the product over nighted to me. I want to do the job myself, and I won't be doing a lot of prep. work, so I don't need a ton of the stuff, just enough for this one piece, which measure's about 10" in length. Here's a list of products that are advertised on a site called PaleoPortal Fossil Preparation. - http://preparation.paleo.amnh.org/47/adhesives-and-consolidants Solution adhesives which set by evaporation of a solvent and include:Paraloid B-72 (ethyl methacrylate co-polymer, formerly called Acryloid) Butvar B-76 (polyvinyl butyral, or PVB) Butvar B-98 (polyvinyl butyral or PVB) McGean B-15 (polyvinyl acetate or PVAC, formerly called Vinac B-15) “White glue” dispersions and emulsions (e.g. Elmers, Rhoplex, Lascaux) - Not Waterproof, so not my choice Thanks in Advance, guys ...

I got a kilo of Butvar-76 plastic from Museum Services Corporation, and slowly mixed a tiny amount into acetone following a 2.3 tablespoons to 800 ml ratio (about a 1:24 by volume) I found in an excellent post by Mattalic. Tonight I treated my first few fossils with it. Some random observations on the process... 1) Everyone says when working with acetone to do so in a well-ventilated place, preferably outdoors. They say this for a very good reason. Don't be a dork (like me) and mix it indoors. I was queasy for several hours afterwards. 2) The largish (approx 6" diameter) glass jar I bought to hold/mix it in was not adequate. Or more accurately, it was too adequate. A smaller mason jar would have been a much better choice. I'll be going shopping soon. 3) The metal lid on the jar had a paper/plastic laminate liner. It almost immediately began to fall apart, and the jar leaked like crazy when shaking it, getting acetone all over the place. See item 1). 4) I want a magnetic stirrer. 5) Mattalic's suggested ratio of Butvar to acetone worked well. I think he nailed it. 6) I've got several hundred small specimens of neuropteris leaves and related material that I've painstakingly extracted from sixty or more pounds of crumbly weak shale in the past few months. Since this stuff is very soft, including fossils that are actually in clay, I've been treating them with PaleoBond stabilizer (to good effect). On some specimens I've coated the entire thing, while on others I've only stabilized the fossil, and not the surrounding matrix. This has resulted in a somewhat unattractive 'stained' appearance around each leaf. Soaking in the Butvar solution for 60-80 seconds removes this staining (and presumably at least some of the stabilizer), seems to make the fossil impressions slightly more contrasty to the matrix, and when dried gives the specimen overall a slightly plastic-feeling coating. I quite like the effect. I should take some before and after photos. 7) I've got a few dozen pieces of weak slate containing graptolites. It was this stuff that first set me off looking for ways to stabilize fossils, as washing them, not washing them, setting them on soft paper towels, and even looking at them funny would cause pieces of the slate to fall off. Very fragile stuff. So I dunked a couple of these in the Butvar solution, also for 60+ seconds. And now I know what the word 'delaminate' really means. The acetone seems to have an even more severe effect than water did, causing lots of splitting along fracture planes that weren't visible. I think with some care and experimenting this effect can be mitigated, and once dried the pieces did have improved strength. And I may intentionally try to delaminate some more, since one such split revealed a very nice graptolite that otherwise I'd never have seen. Overall, largely thanks to a wealth of helpful information on these forums, my first foray into Butvar-76 went well. I'm looking forward to lots of additional batches.

Let me start out by saying I am not a fossil preservation expert, nor a paleontologist. I have a PhD in Paleoclimatological Modelling and as a consequence, spent my time glued to a computer, with my head deep in computer science and geological papers but not the rocks. My undergraduate honors thesis however was in paleontology, determining a metric for characterizing patterns in evolution using the morphology of Conodonts and Archosaurs... so I've always had a love for the field and have taken up fossil collecting again as a hobby now that I have found some time. Thought my recent head-first dive into fossil consolidation using Butvar-76 could help given the fact that a lot of newbies, such as myself, bring up the topic often and repeat the same questions. So, my effort to consolidate the information (pun intended) is here. One of the things I began researching was preservation of various material - bones as well as other delicate fossils as I wanted to preserve what I had collected and subsequently neglected over the years, until now. Clearly, consolidants such as Butvar-76, Vinac and PVA were regular hits in my research. My own decision was to use Butvar-76 simply because it was (or still is?) a standard in preservation and fully reversible if so desired. You can make your own decision to what best suites your own needs, but my write-up here is for my experience using Butvar-76. My initial research focused on these specific forum topics: http://www.thefossilforum.com/index.php?/topic/3629-preserving-fossils/ http://www.thefossilforum.com/index.php?/topic/23262-butvar-76-bone-frosting-solved/ http://www.thefossilforum.com/index.php?/topic/21591-butvar-vs-duco/ http://www.thefossilforum.com/index.php?/topic/35626-cleaning-and-stabilizing-st-clair-fossil-ferns/ http://www.thefossilforum.com/index.php?/topic/32206-where-to-buy-butvar/ http://www.thefossilforum.com/index.php?/topic/28135-butvar-b-76-question/ Harry's responses have always outlined exactly what I was looking for and he has a great write-up which I used as a basis for my first attempt: http://www.thefossilforum.com/index.php?/user/42-harry-pristis/ My first prep. and preservation was to be on a baleen whale jaw section and vertebra from the St. Marys formation around Calvert Cliffs. It was collected 12 years ago (roughly) and still had a lot of dried out clay material and shell frags embedded in it which I wanted to remove and some portions broken apart either during collecting or drying over the last decade. The bones fresh out of storage. Baseball for scale. The points Harry and others drive home is that Butvar is for impregnating. You can mix it up thick for a glue or for a demi-shellac, but technically for vertebrate material you want to soak the stuff - completely impregnate the bone with plastic by allowing the Butvar to seep into every pore and crack in the piece to consolidate it so that your precious finds wont dry out and crack over the years. If you are just starting out, like I was, I highly recommend reading Harry's write-up I linked above. For those looking for a shellac type substance, a different thickness in Butvar solution will accomplish this leaving your piece with a wet-like finish (a thin coat of solidified, fully reversible plastic). The look of the finish will depend however on your solutions viscosity (how much Butvar powder you dissolve), the amount of water in your material before application (this is bad) and how quickly you let the material evaporate. Personally, I wanted to keep my pieces as natural as possible without a shellac, but with the protective qualities of plastic impregnation. When you purchase your first Butvar-76 batch, expect it to come in a form similar to this. Powder. The things to watch out for, and pay attention to were: (1) Water such as surface, humidity, pore, interstitial etc; (2) evaporation rate of the solution after application; (3) thickness of the solution; (4) Materials for mixing (e.g. acetone can chew through lots of different kinds of plastics); (5) Storage. For the jaw section, I cleaned it using a soft toothbrush and water and left some of the clay material in some of the cracks that I thought would help stabilize the bone - for filling other cracks after the pieces were assembled I intended to use matrix mixed with white-glue. I did not glue the two larger pieces back together yet as I wanted to Butvar them separately as the acetone may weaken the glue. Since I used water for cleaning, I put the bones in the oven on low for an hour to dry them out. I read about heat shock damage, but many threads say they never experienced them, so I took a shot. I did however buy a few pounds of silica based desiccant (very cheap at pet stores and Ebay) for a homemade desiccant chamber just in case - and something I will touch on later for another piece to dry it out. Silica gel desiccant for drying items out that you don't want to put in the oven. You must create a very closed system for this. After drying, I used a 800 ml mason jar to mix my Butvar solution. My jars were acquired at the local Weis store and were less than a dollar a piece. The inner rim has a silicone based sealant which gets degraded with use - but since the jar is beveled and has the classic two-part top, you can still get a very tight fit without the spills. To mix, I measured the Butvar powder out and sprinkled the powder into the acetone. I then tightened the lid and shook violently until the powder became almost dissolved into the acetone (you will notice the white powder starts expanding into "clear bubble like" globs before finally fully dissolving into solution. I then left it for about 5 minutes to allow it to fully dissolve - and shook more if necessary. I made sure to check the bottom of the jar to disrupt any powder that may have settled to form a layer. Be rough with it. 800 ml Mason Jar. Mason Jar classic top, with beveled edge. This silicon gel sealant will get eaten by the acetone. If you are using a classic mason jar lid however, that doesn't matter if you tighten the top. I tested different thicknesses on random clean, dried rocks to see the different results. 1 tablespoon in 800 ml seemed to do very little. May be good for a deep soak but was hard to tell how much stability I was getting. At 3 tablespoons shale was getting a wet-like surface and at 3.5 tablespoons I was getting a clear coat on the outside that was painfully obvious. I didn't like this result personally, but my friend liked it on his St. Clair material as it made the shale darker, and ferns whiter. I will touch on this point again later on. Finally, after a bit more trial and error, about 2 and a third tablespoons seemed to be my sweet spot. Fractures were consolidated in shale, and smaller bone frags I had laying around definitely benefited. The outside also wasn't too obvious although when you touched it, you could tell ever so slightly that it was there. I then created a tin-foil pan using heavy-duty tin-foil, placed the bones in the foil pan and covered it with my solution. After about 30 seconds to a minute, I removed the pieces and placed them into a Rubbermaid PP recycle number 5 container to slow down evaporation. Earlier, without tenting the material, a bone fragment got the white dusting on the outside that had to be removed with acetone later on. I wanted to avoid this. It should be noted that not all plastics are created equal and there are many out there that can fit the bill here for both soaking (if you don't want to use tin-foil) and tenting to slow down evap. I used the following to allow me to find the right materials for this job: http://www.coleparmer.com/Chemical-Resistance http://www.plasticsintl.com/plastics_chemical_resistence_chart.html Simple Rubbermaid storage container - singular unit PP 5 plastic. Recycle number 5, PP, is Polypropylene and is A-Excellent for compatibility with acetone. Lots of Rubbermaid tubs are made from this but make sure to check - LDPE is not very good and after a few uses will start to degrade. Recycle number 3 will simply dissolve. Silicone also will degrade which is often used in lids including the popular Pyrex home storage container lids. My container was a singular piece PP box. I added some tin-foil balls to the base of my box for drying purposes, as I wanted to have less contact points on the incoming wet fossils - the balls act as pedestals over the plastic which seemingly helps drying on all sides - and the natural crinkles in the foil further reduce contact points. Super-dee-duper simple drying rack. Tin foil balls placed in the bottom of the PP5 container. The balls act as a colonnade to stack your fossils on to reduce contact points while drying. The crinkles in the foil further reduce surface area touching the specimen. Fossil stacked for drying, tented for slower evaporation of the Butvar solution. After tenting and allowing the bones to fully dry, I glued the fragments back together with cyanoacrylate gel (super glue) and am beginning the process of finalizing the finer details using white glue and matrix. Any "frosting" you get due to whatever process you use, can easily be removed using a q-tip or brush dipped in acetone. The amount of pure acetone you will re-apply depends on what you are doing - if you are re-soaking in acetone to remove the plastic (or some of it), or simply adding some acetone to try and get the plastic back in solution to seep deeper off the surface. Current prep. state of the same bone material. Brown coloration coming through after cleaning, fully impregnated with plastic. No frosting and pieces are re-assembled using cyanoacrylate gel. Cracks will be filled in with a mixture of the calvert clay and PVA. For brushes I used a Nylon based brush as Nylon does not react with acetone. You can get natural hair brushes from an art store, but Home Depot had artificial bristles, Nylon of which was the most compatible with acetone. Simple Nylon bristle brushes - thanks Home Depot. Nylon has a high level of acetone compatibility. Other artificial bristles will dissolve. For impregnation I poured over the entire bone. Brushes were used on smaller pieces to drip solution over. I rarely brushed - I may have dabbed here and there especially over areas of bone that had more pores in them to help the solution to get into the material. These brushes can be used in pure acetone to re-dissolve Butvar, or clean up and frosting which may have occurred in your own experiences. Every thread regarding Butvar talks about bones because that is seemingly the primary use. Agreed. However, I wanted a material that could be used almost universally for archival purposes, vertebrate and invertebrate - even on St. Clair shale. 14 inch St. Clair plate, multiple species, pre-Butvar. Fern fossils from St. Clair are very intricate and have both a graphitic like imprints and the famous white Pyrophyllite form. The later of which flakes off easily even as you try and get it out of the field site. I wanted something that could preserve the ferns, Pyrophyllite and all, as well as consolidate any shale layers and frags that may have been loosened during excavation. The Pyrophyllite also seems sensitive to water content so I wanted to completely preserve the piece. People have had success using hair-spray in the field (cf. links above) and in hind sight, I probably would use a soluble hair-spray in the field for removal, bring the fossils home, rinse with water, dehydrate, then consolidate. In my first attempt however, I skipped the hair-spray and brought them home the best I could. Since I didn't want to "cook" shale from a high carbon locality, I took the silica desiccant, filled a porous sack (feel free to use a sock) and put it in another Rubbermade container. I then left the fossils inside this home-made desiccant chamber for 2 days, only to remove them immediately prior to Butvar application. It's not perfect, but I like to think it did something - the Rubbermade get's a very good seal to it, proof of which is the fumes of acetone when you finally open the lid. Along these lines an important note: make sure to always do this in a highly vented area (outside is good) and no where near anything flammable. At 3.5 tablespoons of Butvar in my 800 ml container my friend got a wet-like clear coating on the outside of his pieces which he liked as they made the shale blacker and the white ferns pop more. And clearly they were preserved. I wanted something less obvious and went with my 2 and a third tablespoon mixture again and followed the same procedure outlined above. The outcome was perfect, with layers and fragments firmly in place, the shale still in its original color and I can tell that the piece is Butvar'ed since I can rub my finger on the pieces and not get an anthracitic stain on my figure from the residue of the shale. Also, the white portions no longer flake on contact. Putting a non-consolidated shale piece next to one I did at 2 and a third tablespoons, you cannot tell the difference. Same plate as before, after Butvar using the solution ratio mentioned. A lot of this was trial an error using the aforementioned posts as a guide. I am sure the heavies will chime in on the mistakes I made along the way, but thought first timers may enjoy a report on a fellow first timers attempt. And Harry, if you feel I lead someone astray with some wrong information, I will gladly correct my wording - or point out my own mistakes. Best, M