uncoat Posted May 13, 2011 Share Posted May 13, 2011 I picked up a few nice things from a collecting trip the other day. One of which is a larger vert in soft sand stone. I have heard of different ways to harden bone but I'm not sure what to do. I am looking to keep the bone as natural looking as possible. Can any one suggest some cheap solutions? Or any ideas? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tracer Posted May 13, 2011 Share Posted May 13, 2011 there's a bunch of discussions on the forum regarding the topic. nothing you put on it will look completely natural, but if it's soft and needs consolidation, then it does. but that's the big decision. it normally doesn't hurt to wait a short time while you think about whether you really want to do something to a fossil. once you've decided, bear in mind that it's not a good idea to just externally harden something with a "crust" on the exterior. it is better to use a thinned product with small molecular structure to get it to penetrate as deeply into the object to be preserved as possible. you could always later surface-coat with a less-thinned product should you choose, but just creating a crust on an unstable fossil/matrix is not a good way to make it last well for eons or epochs or whatever. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
uncoat Posted May 13, 2011 Author Share Posted May 13, 2011 there's a bunch of discussions on the forum regarding the topic. nothing you put on it will look completely natural, but if it's soft and needs consolidation, then it does. but that's the big decision. it normally doesn't hurt to wait a short time while you think about whether you really want to do something to a fossil. once you've decided, bear in mind that it's not a good idea to just externally harden something with a "crust" on the exterior. it is better to use a thinned product with small molecular structure to get it to penetrate as deeply into the object to be preserved as possible. you could always later surface-coat with a less-thinned product should you choose, but just creating a crust on an unstable fossil/matrix is not a good way to make it last well for eons or epochs or whatever. Thanks Tracer, yeah after i posted this i read on of the other threads about it. i will have to grab some butvar or something. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
obsessed1 Posted May 13, 2011 Share Posted May 13, 2011 Thanks Tracer, yeah after i posted this i read on of the other threads about it. i will have to grab some butvar or something. Here are a couple links to some of my posts that have photos of matrix pieces that were consolidated with Butvar. http://www.thefossilforum.com/index.php/topic/16524-the-hardest-part-is-getting-there/page__p__182679__hl__%2Bhardest+%2Bpart__fromsearch__1#entry182679 http://www.thefossilforum.com/index.php/topic/18515-the-hardest-part-is-getting-there-part-2/page__p__204601__hl__%2Bhardest+%2Bpart__fromsearch__1#entry204601 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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