Boar tusks

Stefanie Scheerer asked several questions about treating fragile
boar tusks:

    1.  I don't think that a fungicide would be needed.  I have
        recently humidified leather wall panels for close to a week
        at a time as part of multiple cycles and only had a small
        amount of fungus growing on one of the blotters   that we
        used to supply the moisture to the chamber.  I doubt that
        you will fine fungus growing on the tusks after that short a
        time.

    2.  The high moisture will cause the solvent based B-72 to
        cloud. You might want to go to a water-based acrylic
        adhesive/consolidant such as one of the Rohm and Haas
        dispersions or emulsions.  Stephen Koob has published the
        methodology for this  and you can probably contact him
        directly for more details.  I have used Rhoplex 234 and 33
        to consolidate friable damp subfossil crocodile remains with
        success.

    3.  After consolidation, you could try protecting the surfaces
        with silicone-coated Mylar (poly(ester)) film and clamping
        in place.  I think that you will probably have to improvise
        a conformal clamping system that is well anchored to allow
        you to put the proper amount of pressure on the tusks to
        counteract the stresses on drying.  There is an American
        clamping product called "Panavise" which has a variety of
        clamp heads and padded jaws that are useful for clamping
        objects at various angles.

Let me know if you have any further questions.

Paul S. Storch
Objects Conservator
John and Martha Daniels Objects Conservation Laboratory (JMD-OCL)
B-109.1, Minnesota History Center
345 Kellogg Blvd West
St. Paul, MN  55102-1906
651-297-5774
Fax: 651-297-2967

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                  Conservation DistList Instance 12:21
                 Distributed: Thursday, August 27, 1998
                       Message Id: cdl-12-21-005
                                  ***