Consolidants for fossils

In reply to Colin Macgregor's question about the consolidant
Palaeobond--I have experience of using cyanoacrylates and I believe
that contrary to the various claims made about cyanoacrylates they
are *not* easily reversible see "Materials for Conservation by C.V.
Horie, published by Butterworths, page 105. The best you can hope
for is that they soften with acetone and can be picked away from the
fossil with an appropriate tool. We gave up the use of
cyanoacrylates in our laboratory many years ago because of their
unsatisfactory performance.

For good consolidative properties I recommend that you try using
Butvar B98 in isopropanol and for adhesion Butvar B76 in acetone.

Gill Comerford
Conservation Scientist
Palaeontology Department
The Natural History Museum
Cromwell Road
Sth Kensington
London SW7 5BD
+44 171 938 8717

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                  Conservation DistList Instance 13:10
                   Distributed: Monday, July 26, 1999
                       Message Id: cdl-13-10-002
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