Juvenile Mammoth Tusk Restoration

[AlaskaNick]

I just wanted to share this, thought it might be of interest and there's definitely room for improvement and tips! This was the first fossil mammoth tusk I restored and prepared a few years ago- a juvenile mammoth tusk that was split laterally almost perfectly down the middle. It was sourced from central Alaska, though not sure if it was discovered in a mining operation or if it was exposed on a river bank as so many are. 

 

The first step was to submerge and soak the entire tusk in a PVA solution, followed by Apoxie sculpt and banding to merge the two broken pieces and restore some of the tip. I haven't ever done this before so I used the grey Apoxie, in retrospect maybe the white color would have been easier for later coloring? Maybe mixing color in the Apoxie pre-hardening?

 

After banding and curing, the two pieces held together and it was time to sand sand sand down to I think 2000gr. Lastly, I colored the Apoxie fill with various wood stain colors, however I wasn't a huge fan of that- does anyone have any recommendations on how to do that better? I've never been a painter and know nothing about what to use or color matching, but would love some info! I've done other projects and thought about taking on restoration projects where this knowledge would be really helpful but admittedly I'm really inexperienced with coloring any sort of anything. I've seen people reconstruct 1/3 of a cave bear skull and it's like you'd never know unless you were really looking for it. I have no idea how they do that! I'm sure that takes some serious artistic talent that I don't posses, but any tips for this would be appreciated. 

 

Originally I built a stand out of bent/polished brass and a block of wood I got from a trophy store that is somehow still in business in this little Alaska town. A couple years after I made the original stand I decided to make a new stand out of a small petrified wood slab/slice. I really like the look of it better (though I'm not crazy about the brass anymore), but I had a really hard time drilling the holes in the slab- I broke a few bits before I bought some stone/tile bits, and even those weren't great! I was only able to drill the holes just barely deep enough to hold the brass wire. Any tips on drilling petrified wood?? I have a few other small things and potentially a few larger items that would look killer on a similar stand. 

 

I've done a few tusks since this one, none of them with such significant damage, though none are complete tusks   I think I'll post another one of the interesting ones that has amazing vivianite and what I think are actual cobalt crystals in the internal cavity. 

 

The restoration done on this tusk is only for me, I have no plans on selling this so in looking for reconstruction/restoration tips & tricks, it's purely for my own collection and enjoyment- not to try and fool some unwitting buyer on our favorite auction website! To be honest, the preparation is the most fun for me! 

 

Enjoy!

 

Nick 

[Ptychodus04]

Looks great. I typically use acrylic paint for my restorations as I find that most fossils aren't one color. I try to mix my Apoxie sculpt to a logical base color using white, brown, black, and the gray. Then, it gets painted. I know that the Perot Muesum preparators used powdered concrete colorants mixed with the Apoxie Sculpt to get a good match on the coloration of their Pachyrhinosaurus skull from northern Alaska. 

[JBkansas]

I may be alone in this, but I'd be okay with restoration that I was told of. Include the pics of the restoration process and it makes for a good "story."

Edited July 7, 2022 by JBkansas

[AlaskaNick]

8 minutes ago, JBkansas said:

I may be alone in this, but I'd be okay with restoration that I was told of. Include the pics of the restoration process and makes for a good "story."

I think restoration, especially significant reconstructive work, is sort of taboo, but there are different reasons for doing it. In this case it was purely for my own enjoyment. I’m content with something restored like this in my personal collection, while I’d be really disappointed to find out about restoration having been done on some other fossils I own. I think you’re right on- I’m ok with it if it’s honest and upfront. 

[Meganeura]

I'd definitely take this restored tusk over the original honestly, as long as I knew it was restored.

[AlaskaNick]

18 hours ago, Ptychodus04 said:

Looks great. I typically use acrylic paint for my restorations as I find that most fossils aren't one color. I try to mix my Apoxie sculpt to a logical base color using white, brown, black, and the gray. Then, it gets painted. I know that the Perot Muesum preparators used powdered concrete colorants mixed with the Apoxie Sculpt to get a good match on the coloration of their Pachyrhinosaurus skull from northern Alaska. 

Thanks, I think the next time I'm getting ready for a project like this I'll give some colorant mixed with Apoxie a try followed by some acrylic paint. 

[Shellseeker]

On 7/7/2022 at 5:25 PM, AlaskaNick said:

I think restoration, especially significant reconstructive work, is sort of taboo, but there are different reasons for doing it. In this case it was purely for my own enjoyment. I’m content with something restored like this in my personal collection, while I’d be really disappointed to find out about restoration having been done on some other fossils I own. I think you’re right on- I’m ok with it if it’s honest and upfront. 

It is a fantastic piece. You have a lot to be proud of.... both completed fossil and your skills at restoration.

When you are seeking an addition to your personal collection. you do it for your own enjoyment, not for the profit of selling it.  Here is one of mine, a Rhino tusk from the Florida Miocene. I have never seen it's equal.

 

[AlaskaNick]

1 hour ago, Shellseeker said:

It is a fantastic piece. You have a lot to be proud of.... both completed fossil and your skills at restoration.

When you are seeking an addition to your personal collection. you do it for your own enjoyment, not for the profit of selling it.  Here is one of mine, a Rhino tusk from the Florida Miocene. I have never seen it's equal.

 

That’s exceptional, I’ve genuinely never seen one of those! Is it dense/heavy? Do you know what species it’s from?

[Shellseeker]

8 hours ago, AlaskaNick said:

That’s exceptional, I’ve genuinely never seen one of those! Is it dense/heavy? Do you know what species it’s from?

Yes on Dense/heavy... as you pick it up, heavier than anticipated. It is Teleoceras Proterum

Age Range

• Late Miocene epoch; late Clarendonian (Cl3) to early Hemphilian (Hh1) land mammal ages
• About 9.5 to 8 million years ago
• 
• If I reading correctly,  I have the right mandible incisor grown into a tusk,  note the "sharpening" tooth/post directly above

[Shellseeker]

I am primarily interested, just based on time and resources, in Florida fossils and Miocene Fossils are especially difficult to acquire. My good friend and frequent hunting partner, worked as a equipment maintenance supervisor in the Bone Valley Phosphate mines from 1970 to the mid 1990s. Not great pay or pension, but in his spare time, he could hunt fossils in the mines.

His favorites were Proboscidean and Rhino jaws with teeth, plus small horses and predator material.  He basically ignored Megalodons. He donated some pieces to Museums in his area but used them as a "savings" account,  selling when he needed money for mortgages, car payments, etc

Fast forward to 2015.  He still had a few disassociated Rhino tusks,  one with only minor tip damage. I sent it to the best Fossil Restorer in Florida, and the result is what you see above.

Now I am sure that there were complete Rhino jaws that might have come out of Bone Valley into private collections,  maybe by a similar path that I took.

Here is a similar  one found in Love Bone Bed, by a crew from Florida State University in 1974 and photographed in 2015 to be included in the Paleontology database at University of Florida Museum of Natural History.

[AlaskaNick]

2 hours ago, Shellseeker said:

I am primarily interested, just based on time and resources, in Florida fossils and Miocene Fossils are especially difficult to acquire. My good friend and frequent hunting partner, worked as a equipment maintenance supervisor in the Bone Valley Phosphate mines from 1970 to the mid 1990s. Not great pay or pension, but in his spare time, he could hunt fossils in the mines.

His favorites were Proboscidean and Rhino jaws with teeth, plus small horses and predator material.  He basically ignored Megalodons. He donated some pieces to Museums in his area but used them as a "savings" account,  selling when he needed money for mortgages, car payments, etc

Fast forward to 2015.  He still had a few disassociated Rhino tusks,  one with only minor tip damage. I sent it to the best Fossil Restorer in Florida, and the result is what you see above.

Now I am sure that there were complete Rhino jaws that might have come out of Bone Valley into private collections,  maybe by a similar path that I took.

Here is a similar  one found in Love Bone Bed, by a crew from Florida State University in 1974 and photographed in 2015 to be included in the Paleontology database at University of Florida Museum of Natural History.

Very cool, and definitely something rare to see outside of a museum! I wish I lived somewhere more conducive to fossil hunting. I live in Southeast Alaska and we don't really have the Pleistocene deposits here- no permafrost this far south, and as recent as 10,000yrs ago I think where I lived was still covered in a massive glacial field that extended all the way down through British Colombia. I have heard of one fossil discovery in SE AK but it's so rare it made the news! Do you know if rhino bottom jaw tusks evolved only in geographically isolated species in the Americas, or if rhino species isolated on other continents evolved similar features?