Preserving Fossils

[jnicholes]

Hello,

 

Just got back from Kemmerer Wyoming with 63 fish fossils. I was told by my dad's co-worker that using a 50/50 mixture of Elmer's glue, and water would make the fossils more durable and seal them. I'm curious about the process. How long do you let them soak in this mixture? Is it a good technique to use for my kinds of fossils?

 

Any help will be appreciated,

 

Jared

[Sjfriend]

Don't want to use white glue (Elmer's or the like) as they will almost always turn color after time and a pain to remove (so I've read on here) if needed later.  Search on here for information about "stabilizing fossils". They'll be plenty of advice already about the subject. Paraloids are the best options I know about myself.

[RJB]

I used to use the 50/50 elmers and water many years ago.  If the humidity goes up or you live in a place with rather high humidity they will turn sticky.  Not a good thing.   Im old school and still use Glyptol but all the plastics would be a good choice.

 

RB

 

 

[jnicholes]

Thanks for the advice. I appreciate it.  I already used the Elmer's Glue 50/50 mixture. A friend of mine recommended it to me. Fortunately, humidity doesn't go high that often where I live.

[Ptychodus04]

White glue is fraught with issues but none of that matters at this point. Keep your specimens out of the sunlight as much as possible to help slow the inevitable discoloration and degradation that will come. 

[jnicholes]

Thank you. To be honest, I did not know that white glue had these issues when I did it. I will take your advice and I will not use white glue in the future.

[Harry Pristis]

* Here's what 'oilshale' had to say about white glue (wood glue is just another polymer formulation):

"Don't get me wrong - Elmer's White glue is a great stuff for glueing wood and can be also great for "hardening" crumbly fossils!

"But I fully agree with Harry's opinion (even so I am a polymer chemist and my job is to develop white glues and other latices....): I would never use a white glue unless the fossil is wet, crumbly and the substrate is porous and can't be dried before consilidation!

"There is no way to remove this white glue once dried (not even with solvent). It will form a dense polymer layer on the surface without penetrating much into the substrate (white glue are tiny polymer particles dispersed in water with a particle size of around 1µm, so the penetration depth won't be much).

"Butvar, a Polyvinyl butyrate (the company I am working in is also producing these polymers, of course different brand names) in this respect is much better (will penetrate better and can easily be removed by solvents).

"I do have a couple of fossil fish which were mistreated by someone else in such a way. Since the substrate was almost nonporous (diatomaceous earth!) and quite soft (and may be also the amount of white glue and concentration used was too high) there is now a thick slightly yellowish polymer film on top. Unfortunately, this is not all: The film shrinks and now peels off (with bones attached to the polymer film of course)!
Thomas"

[jnicholes]

 well, the good thing about the Rock that the fossil was in is that it's a very porous Rock. It was also wet.

 

Thank you so much for pointing that out. It's too late now, as I used the glue process already. However, I can keep all this info in mind for the future. I learn from my mistakes.

 

Jared

[Ptychodus04]

6 hours ago, jnicholes said:

 well, the good thing about the Rock that the fossil was in is that it's a very porous Rock. It was also wet.

 

Thank you so much for pointing that out. It's too late now, as I used the glue process already. However, I can keep all this info in mind for the future. I learn from my mistakes.

 

Jared

That’s how we learn. None of us know it all. Keep it up. In the future, green river matrix tends to handle drying well. It may delaminate (18” layer and bottom cap) a bit but cyanoacrylate repairs this easily.