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Solnhofen Fossil Repair


rodrex

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Hi All,

I have been reading through this chat about prep. I wanted to ask what would be best to glue a solnhofen fossil back together? I know that I have seen some fossils from there glued with a light brownish material that does not look like normal super glue. Also got any ideas about how to fill the missing matrix to make it a rectangular slab again? Would this be best with Apoxie Sculpt? I am looking for something that won't eat the limestone (acid-free).

 

Looking forward to your suggestions.

 

Kind regards

 

Rod

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2 hours ago, rodrex said:

Hi All,

I have been reading through this chat about prep. I wanted to ask what would be best to glue a solnhofen fossil back together? I know that I have seen some fossils from there glued with a light brownish material that does not look like normal super glue. Also got any ideas about how to fill the missing matrix to make it a rectangular slab again? Would this be best with Apoxie Sculpt? I am looking for something that won't eat the limestone (acid-free).

 

Looking forward to your suggestions.

 

Kind regards

 

Rod

 

 The glue is  " AKEMIE Marmorkitt 1000 Universal, juragelb."

That's my favorite glue. It is a low-viscosity polyester resin - similar to Bondo Fiberglass resin in the USA (but without glassfiber) which is mixed with rock flour from Solnhofen and therefore has exactly the same color as the rock. The adhesive cures in about 10 minutes after the addition of peroxide.  There are different types: colourless,  juragelb, extra thin and thixotropic.

 

Thomas

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Be not ashamed of mistakes and thus make them crimes (Confucius, 551 BC - 479 BC).

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So I am curious, from your statement above. Can you mix regular fiberglass resin (same used for surfboards ) with the native matrix to fill in voids without discoloration?

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This is not regular fiberglass resin - this is specially made for repair of Solnhofen- and Treuchtlinger-Marble slabs.  

But in principle you can do that. I use for coloring mineral powder - titanium dioxide for white, various iron oxides for brown tones and manganese dioxide for black. You can buy the whole colour Palette.

However, the "normal" fiberglass resin is too viscous, hardens too quickly and is yellow in colour. If you dye it with rock flour, it can become very viscous and and there is a change in oolor.  I think Akemie contains a higher proportion of monomer styrene as thinner

 

I always adjust the colour of glued joints (if they are slightly wider) or use clear cyanoacrylate for very well-fitting parts.

 

Fibreglass resin shrinks during curing and can therefore crack - large areas should not be repaired with it (several centimetre-long missing parts). 
Epoxides are better suited for this - they do not shrink as much.

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Be not ashamed of mistakes and thus make them crimes (Confucius, 551 BC - 479 BC).

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20 hours ago, oilshale said:

 

 The glue is  " AKEMIE Marmorkitt 1000 Universal, juragelb."

That's my favorite glue. It is a low-viscosity polyester resin - similar to Bondo Fiberglass resin in the USA (but without glassfiber) which is mixed with rock flour from Solnhofen and therefore has exactly the same color as the rock. The adhesive cures in about 10 minutes after the addition of peroxide.  There are different types: colourless,  juragelb, extra thin and thixotropic.

 

Thomas

 

 

thanks Thomas, appreciate this very much.

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On 16/06/2018 at 9:54 PM, Ptychodus04 said:

Post pics please. :D There are several options for repair but they are very dependent on condition of the specimen.

Ill post some photos soon! Promise :)

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Ouch! That looks like something painful happened to it.

 

If it were my job, I would piece it all together with cyanoacrylate and fill the cracks with Apoxie Sculpt. It can be purchased in several colors so you can match it to the color of the matrix and the bone.

 

I would apply a thin layer of Apoxie Sculpt to the back to support the repaired cracks since there are so many of them.

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I used to collect a bit in Bavaria and often got reject specimens from dealers that looked a bit like this. What I used to do was trim them down as much as possible then use the bits I trimmed off, powdered and mixed with glue, to make a filler that matched the rock. It will always look very repaired though, there is no way of reproducing the dendrites convincingly

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20 hours ago, Taogan said:

I used to collect a bit in Bavaria and often got reject specimens from dealers that looked a bit like this. What I used to do was trim them down as much as possible then use the bits I trimmed off, powdered and mixed with glue, to make a filler that matched the rock. It will always look very repaired though, there is no way of reproducing the dendrites convincingly

 

 

thanks Taogan

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  • 1 month later...

I was thinking too... Would anyone know what taxon this likey represents? Unfortunately, due to its incompletness I'm not sure. 

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  • 2 weeks later...

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