Pterosaur Posted March 23, 2017 Share Posted March 23, 2017 Hi everyone, I've had a couple people lately asking me how I restored the megalodon tooth I posted about a couple years ago here. I decided to pick out a damaged tooth on Ebay for $15, and take you through it step by step. Here we go! What You'll Need: PaleoBond Sculp Hardener and PaleoBond Sculp Resin (You can substitute with epoxy putty but dries faster and is less malleable) X-Acto Knife Wire brush or any brush with very stiff bristles Any brand of acrylic paint from Hobby Lobby or Michaels (specific colors listed further below) A small paintbrush of reasonable quality Fine sandpaper and steel wool SITUATIONAL: Clear gloss used for acrylic paint Step 1: Examine the fossil and the damage. This is the bargain tooth I purchased. It's over 5 inches, and you can see it's actually in nice condition minus the chunk missing. The broken edge is still sharp and jagged, so it appears that the damage occurred recently as opposed to millions of years ago. To fix this tooth I will need to recreate parts of the root, bourlette and enamel. Since the tooth has fairly nice detail I will definitely need my razor blade to create fine lines and serrations. Step 2: Prepare and apply the putty Pull out a small chunk of putty from both the PaleoBond Hardener and Resin containers. Knead them together with your hands until the colors mix completely. Mix thoroughly otherwise the putty will be squishy in some places and will not harden properly. Once mixed, take a very small piece from your ball of putty and mash it into the damaged area of your tooth. Step 3: Building your shape Less is more when you're working with putty. Smaller pieces are much easier to manipulate, so build gradually piece by piece. You may get to a point where you're putty structure is not stable enough to continue building on. Take a break for 2-3 hours to let the putty dry and come back. When building the root of my example tooth, I had to take two or three breaks in order to get a foundation sturdy enough for me to continue building up. Pay attention to how your repair is taking shape and keep the edges of your putty level with the natural edges of the tooth. This is one of the most difficult parts of the repair, but it makes a big difference when you get it right. Wash your hands every once in a while to keep them from getting to tacky and sticking to your putty. Step 4: Begin to work in detail As your repair begins to fill out, work in natural-looking cracks and lines with your X-Acto knife and fingernails. Mimic the natural aspects of your tooth as best as you can. When repairing my tooth's root, I created fissures and cracks that matched up with the real side of the tooth. This really helped create the illusion that the repair is natural. To mimic the heavily detailed surface of the tooth's root, I gently pushed my wire brush into the surface multiple times. Try to do this when your putty is still wet because if the putty is dry it takes much more effort. ALSO, make sure to keep the putty very smooth in areas of enamel (excluding line/crack detail). Once the putty dries, take some fine sandpaper and smooth it out further. Steel wool can then be used to make the surface even smoother. (Thanks to steelhead9 for those two tips!) Be very anal retentive about this. You will appreciate it in the next step. Step 5: Paint! This is my favorite part because it's the point in this process where the repair finally comes to life! It also happens to be the most frustrating part. Depending on your tooth's coloring you will likely need the following colors in your arsenal: Umber Black White Sienna (maybe) Red (maybe) Blue (maybe) This step is where perfectionism (making the putty super smooth in areas of enamel) really pays off. Paint highlights the imperfections of your putty, so don't be disappointed or surprised if you have to start over. I started over probably two or three times. As far as painting technique, I would love to give more instruction, but that is really an entire lesson in itself. Don't be afraid to paint a little onto the actual fossil. You will need to do this in order to properly camouflage the merged area of putty and tooth. In fact, don't be afraid to overlap your putty a millimeter or so onto the tooth as well. My biggest tip though is make sure you paint in a well lit room. Painted colors can look spot-on until you step into good lighting... Step 6: Apply a finish depending on your tooth Some teeth with top-quality enamel will need a glossy finish applied in order for the repair to look natural. My tooth did not require a high-gloss coat. Either way, you ought to apply some kind of light finish to your tooth in order to preserve the repair from scratches and humidity. I have not yet found the perfect finish to do the job, and am still experimenting with spray finish, clear acrylic gloss, clear furniture gloss, low-gloss nail polish, etc. Feel free to add your thoughts and recommendations below! Below you can see my repaired tooth. The root could use a bit more texture and the enamel and bourlette are a little rough in places. Overall, I'm happy with the result though. I hope these instructions were helpful! If anything is unclear or too general I'd be glad to elaborate further. Good luck!!!! Your Fellow Fossil-Fanatic, Lauren 19 "I am a part of all that I have met." - Lord Alfred Tennyson Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
steelhead9 Posted March 23, 2017 Share Posted March 23, 2017 Excellent, informative post. I would only add that the putty can be sanded with fine sandpaper and finished with steel wool to make the enamel area as smooth as glass. Very nice prep work. 1 Still Life Fossils Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CBOB Posted March 23, 2017 Share Posted March 23, 2017 What a great post! Thanks for sharing this. I too wanted to try this method on a few of my not-so-perfect megs. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pterosaur Posted March 23, 2017 Author Share Posted March 23, 2017 1 hour ago, steelhead9 said: Excellent, informative post. I would only add that the putty can be sanded with fine sandpaper and finished with steel wool to make the enamel area as smooth as glass. Very nice prep work. This is great feedback!! I'd never thought to try this, but will definitely do so from now on. Thanks so much, steelhead9! "I am a part of all that I have met." - Lord Alfred Tennyson Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
digit Posted March 23, 2017 Share Posted March 23, 2017 Excellent resource that is a good candidate for a pinned topic (@JohnJ or @Fossildude19). Cheers. -Ken 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fossildude19 Posted March 23, 2017 Share Posted March 23, 2017 15 minutes ago, digit said: Excellent resource that is a good candidate for a pinned topic (@JohnJ or @Fossildude19). Cheers. -Ken As mentioned in a different topic, we are currently trying to come up with a format for getting great topics such as this highlighted in a way other than pinning, as some of the pinned topic lists in the sub-forums are getting pretty long. We are testing a possible solution as we speak. It needs a bit more tweaking, but we'll get there. In the meantime, we will discuss pinning this topic amongst the admin and moderation team. 2 1 Tim - VETERAN SHALE SPLITTER VFOTM --- APRIL - 2015 __________________________________________________ "In every walk with nature one receives far more than he seeks." John Muir ~ ~ ~ ~ ><))))( *> About Me Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
digit Posted March 23, 2017 Share Posted March 23, 2017 Great to know that you all are working behind the scenes to continually improve and polish the shining star that is TFF. Cheers. -Ken 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mattbsharks Posted June 6, 2017 Share Posted June 6, 2017 this is great! I have lots of broken megs and this is giving me the motivation to try to repair them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mattbsharks Posted June 7, 2017 Share Posted June 7, 2017 This post inspired me to repair my meg teeth. I tried to use epoxy putty. Just so everyone knows, Michaels, and AC Moore do not carry epoxy putty. Ace Hardware store has small tubes of it but the epoxy putty they carry is very sticky and liquidy and does not do the trick. I am going to order PaleoBond Sculp Hardener and PaleoBond Sculp Resin tonight. The epoxy resin was so sticky that I spent literally half an hour washing my hands off. If anyone has the same misfortune as me and ends up using Ace hardware epoxy, the best way to wash it off is using dawn dish soap. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sseth Posted December 12, 2017 Share Posted December 12, 2017 Thanks for sharing. _____________________________________ Seth www.fossilshack.com www.americanfossil.com www.fishdig.com Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fossilselachian Posted December 12, 2017 Share Posted December 12, 2017 Do you utilize a razor blade to create serrations? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mattbsharks Posted December 14, 2017 Share Posted December 14, 2017 On 12/12/2017 at 5:00 PM, fossilselachian said: Do you utilize a razor blade to create serrations? Yes. A box cutter or xacto knife will do the trick Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vaniman Posted March 12, 2018 Share Posted March 12, 2018 Awesome work here! Looks great. Please PM me for more info on our products. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thecosmilia Trichitoma Posted September 13, 2018 Share Posted September 13, 2018 You can also use Play Dough although it can be hard to get the right colors as you don't have a lot of colors to mix with. It is better to keep your mouth closed and let people think you are a fool than to open it and remove all doubt -Mark Twain Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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