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Any preservation needed?


Joe_17

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I just recently bought one of my most expensive fossils and wanted to know if there's anything i need to do to prevent cracking / chipping. Its a partial antler of a Megaloceras giganteus . It came with a card saying it was treated for that but not to keep it in a room with a ton of humidity . anything else i should do , or is it going to be fine?

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Does it say what it was treated with? That will determine if you need to treat it with something else or not.

Each dot is 50,000,000 years:

Hadean............Archean..............................Proterozoic.......................................Phanerozoic...........

                                                                                                                    Paleo......Meso....Ceno..

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Doesn't time just fly by?

 

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It just says it was " treated with a stabilizing material that will probably prevent any cracking or flaking" . Other than that nope. But this particular antler came from the north sea .

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1 hour ago, Joe_17 said:

It came with a card saying it was treated for that but not to keep it in a room with a ton of humidity . 

Am I the only one that houses all his displays in a steam sauna? :P

 

 

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44 minutes ago, Joe_17 said:

It just says it was " treated with a stabilizing material that will probably prevent any cracking or flaking" . Other than that nope. But this particular antler came from the north sea .

Maybe try to contact the seller and see if they know what it was treated with. If it was expensive, I’m sure they used something of quality to treat it. 

Each dot is 50,000,000 years:

Hadean............Archean..............................Proterozoic.......................................Phanerozoic...........

                                                                                                                    Paleo......Meso....Ceno..

                                                                                                           Ꞓ.OSD.C.P.Tr.J.K..Pg.NgQ< You are here

Doesn't time just fly by?

 

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Megaloceras antlers are usually pretty stable. On the other hand, anything dredged from the bottom of the North Sea usually is not. Of more importance than the exact stabilizer used (let's assume that most dealers have some knowledge of stabilizers) would be whether as much salt was removed as possible and was it adequately dried before stabilizing. The only caveat to the drying process would be if a white glue solution was used. Let's hope not!

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Almost sounds like white glue.  Like steelhead9 has already said.  I hope not.  You may have a job on your hands.  Not seeing your fossil its really hard to say what to do but someone hare should be able to help and I do wish you the best of luck.

 

RB

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The antler looks quite stable. Hard to tell from the photos what stabilizer was used, although the porous end looks like it could be white glue. I would keep it as is and not worry about it. If there are signs of deterioration in the future, make another post, with photos of what is happening, and there are many people here on the forum who can help you. Nice fossil, by the way. 

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9 hours ago, Joe_17 said:

 Theres some clearish stuff that's on the sides of it too. I'm not sure what's used since I'm unfamiliar with it .

15479425081058242653299861879269.jpg

Those cracks are a clear sign of splitting due to salt expansion. Very common among North Sea fossils. Untreated it might take a week to break apart, or it might take 30 years. It looks to be already treated judging from the surface.

So keep an eye on it. And if you notice that the cracks are getting larger it should probably be glued some more.

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Olof Moleman AKA Lord Trilobite

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