What shale I do?

[Brian-miller]

So my daughter found some shells she is quite proud of finding (she is 7) and wanted me to "clean them" so I scraped most of the surface shale off the shells and exposed as much as I feel I can with simple blades and dental tools (just kinda learning how to do it) but this dark shale is fairly soft and I'm unsure what to do to make it less so? I was reading on here something like the b-72 or 76 to consolidate the fossil would that be the best thing to firm up this shale? 

 

And final question if a consolidation is needed where do you get that stuff in canada? 

[Brian-miller]

[hadrosauridae]

If its very soft / chalky shale then coating it will help tremendously, especially if your little paleontologist will be carry it around and handling it a lot.  Consolidants come in 3 common varieties; Paraloid B-72, Butvar B-76, and PVA resins.  For what you need, I dont think it matters which one you use, they all will be pretty equal.  I ordered mine from a company called Talas.  Not sure if they ship to Canada but I dont see why they wouldnt.

 

All 3 of those consolidants are a plastic bead (or powder), that you dissolve into acetone or alcohol (must be 100% and without water!).  It should be a super thin mixture that still flows like water.  For the PVA I use 5 tablespoons of beads to 8 ozs of acetone. (that amount would be WAY more than you need though, although it stores well).  Then you paint it over the surfaces and let it soak it well, then set aside to dry.  When the solvent evaporates, its leaves the plastic infused through the fossil and the matrix and makes it a lot more durable.

 

edit- one last thing, make sure you test a small patch before coating the whole thing.  I cant think of WHY it might not be compatible, but I always test on new matrix before going all out.

[Brian-miller]

Awesome that's what I was wondering ya I saw that company online and messaged them about that so thanks! Its not super chalky shale it's a fairly solid black shale (if that's a thing?) Its odd some of it you can crumble out of the cliff with your hands while large chunks of it take a solid whack or 2 from a 3lb hammer. The really funny part is I spent most of the day hunting concretions and found 0 in any of them while my kido was just smashing chunks of shale and found more than I did haha. Go figure lol