Search the Community

Hi all. I looked through a few pages of this forum, but couldn't find an answer to this question. I hope I'm not duplicating something asked and answered elsewhere. My family came across this mortality plate in Carfordsville, IL earlier this summer. We've already cleaned it off with water and a toothbrush, but I reached out to a geology expert at my state's museum to ask her what else we could do. She told me: "[T]he fossil is sitting in a rock that will dissolve in acid. If you want, you can try letting it soak for a bit in some dilute vinegar and water for a few hours at a time and then brushing at it as you have if you want to try to clear a little more of the rock away. The fossil itself is harder but is also made of a material that will dissolve, so that's why I recommend doing that slowly if you choose to go that route." She mentioned elsewhere in the email how understaffed and over worked the museum employees are right now, so I don't want to bother her anymore. I wonder if anyone on here knows 1) what ratio I should use in preparing a vinegar and water solution, and 2) how long I should soak it for and/or how long might be too long? Any advice would be sincerely appreciated!

My Butvar 76 arrived yesterday. I need to know what concentrations of it to make for my bison prep. Most of the bison was in pretty decent shape and not terribly fragile, but the skull is a different story. It had a few tree roots growing through it and was split in a few places. I do not know what concentrations to make of butvar 76 to stabilize the very fragile parts and also to glue back some broken pieces. 1. What concentrations do I need to make for the project? Ideally I would like to know the grams B76 to milliliters of acetone ratio for each use. I’m a complete novice at this sort of prep. My prep up to this point has been on invertebrates in matrix. This is a vertebrate in dirt. I don’t even know where to begin. I’d categorize myself as next to clueless. I’m trying to educate myself with lecture videos and articles, but I haven’t found anything on concentrations or dilutions for different use or applications of bone prep and stabilization. I have some very novice questions. Please humor me in my utter ignorance. Parts of the skull are very fragile and thin. I’ve left the mud and dirt in place where it is most fragile. So I need to stabilize it before I attempt to remove the dirt, which then stabilizes the dirt in place too. This seems like it’s going to be insanely tedious. 2. How do I remove the dirt while it is essential stabilized in place with the bone? I assume I will add a little acetone to the dirt to weaken the b76 and try not to add too much so the I destabilize the bone. Is that the gist of how it works? If that’s the case I can work with that and figure things out as I go. I’m good with my hands and problem solving. I do understand that I need to have ventilation while doing this. I haven’t worked that component out yet. I do not have a hood or cabinet of any kind. I’m considering building a small make shift cabinet of sorts. I can wear a ventilator type mask. The N95, but I don’t know if those work for fumes like acetone. 3. Do N95 masks work for fumes like acetone? 4. Any suggestions on ventilation? Any helpful tips, guidance, reference articles or materials would be appreciated. I’m currently trying to read through some of Amy Davidson’s stuff on adhesive and consolidants. I haven’t gotten very far though.