Mud removal Question... fragile dino bones...

[Alberta_Cretaceous]

I'm dealing with dried mud on fragile dinosaur bones.

 

Do I treat with butvar b-76 first, or get the mud off first?

 

The bones are at home now. If I scrub the mud off first, then there's a chance the bone can crumble in my hand.

If i soak it in butvar b-76 first, won't the mud get solidified/plastically and not come off then?

 

I am new to this.

[Fossildude19]

@Ptychodus04

[jpc]

can we see a photo?   

[hadrosauridae]

Photos and more info would help a lot here.  BUT, with the info we have.... I'm assuming that at least some of the fossil is showing, so you know you have a fossil.  You can very gently brush and blow away loose "mud" from whats exposed, and put a liberal amount of consolidant on that.  It will soak deeper into the bone a little bit.  Then carefully expose more, and keep applying as you go.  Any matrix that gets glued to the bone can be removed later, after the entire specimen is exposed and solidified.

[Alberta_Cretaceous]

1 hour ago, hadrosauridae said:

Photos and more info would help a lot here.  BUT, with the info we have.... I'm assuming that at least some of the fossil is showing, so you know you have a fossil.  You can very gently brush and blow away loose "mud" from whats exposed, and put a liberal amount of consolidant on that.  It will soak deeper into the bone a little bit.  Then carefully expose more, and keep applying as you go.  Any matrix that gets glued to the bone can be removed later, after the entire specimen is exposed and solidified.

“Any matrix that gets glued to the bone can be removed later, after the entire specimen is exposed and solidified.”

 

thanks. I wasn't sure if it would harden up too much to do later

[hadrosauridae]

8 hours ago, Alberta_Cretaceous said:

“Any matrix that gets glued to the bone can be removed later, after the entire specimen is exposed and solidified.”

 

thanks. I wasn't sure if it would harden up too much to do later

 

you can wipe the surface with alcohol to soften and remove surface debris that gets glued to it.

[Ptychodus04]

Pictures are worth a thousand words, so they say.

 

Fragile bones in soft matrix tend to respond well to gentle scrubbing with a q-tip dipped in ethanol. You'll use a lot of q-tips but you can remove a section of mud and stabilize the exposed bone as you go.

 

I would not consolidate en masse since your specimen is already out of the field safely. That would just slow your prep.