[Nhcoll-l] Butvar b76 resin use in whale bone consolidation

[Chupasko, Judy]

Hi Michi,
Just checked out your company and am happy to see your accomplishments with marine mammal exhibits and public education!  Beautiful work! :)   As a curatorial staff  in Mammalogy at the Harvard MCZ for over 25 years now,  I have collected many stranded marine mammals for the scientific collection, including many large whale species.  

I have a newborn Sperm Whale skull in our collection that I have been meaning to "infuse" with B76 resin beads (dissolved in acetone, which will evaporate and leave behind the resin) to stabilize the young spongy skull.  We have not had time to do this yet.  It think that B76 resin is a widely accepted method for fragile bone and artifacts (pottery, fossils, etc.).  I would suggest "experimenting" with one small fragile bone from a specimen (individual) that will be placed in a scientific research collection to see how it works.  Also, I would leave one bone for that same individual untouched, that way, in the future, if any scientist needs a piece of bone for future DNA research (for bone, ancient DNA techniques are used)...it will not be infused with B76 resin.  However, if tissues for that individual were saved (i.e. liver, skeletal muscle, etc.) and frozen for future research needs  (consumptive analysis, DNA, lead, isotopes, etc...), you could infuse the whole skeleton.  

Hope this helps even a little bit! 
Best wishes, Judy


Judith M. Chupasko, Curatorial Associate
Mammalogy Department
Harvard University, Northwest Building
52 Oxford Street, Room B215.30
Cambridge, Massachusetts 02138,  USA
# 617-495-2469

jchupasko at oeb.harvard.edu
http://www.mcz.harvard.edu/Departments/Mammalogy/




-----Original Message-----
From: nhcoll-l-bounces at mailman.yale.edu [mailto:nhcoll-l-bounces at mailman.yale.edu] On Behalf Of angie thompson
Sent: Tuesday, October 08, 2013 8:21 PM
To: nhcoll-l at mailman.yale.edu
Subject: Re: [Nhcoll-l] Butvar b76 resin use in whale bone consolidation

Michi, I'm passing this on to a friend who does a lot of work with skeletal material. Hopefully we can get an answer for you!   -Angie


On Sun, Oct 6, 2013 at 10:51 PM, Main, Michi <michi at cetacea.ca> wrote:
> Hi all,
>
> I'm wondering whether any of you have experience using Butvar B76 resin for the consolidation of soft/damaged cetacean bones?  We have  used it to consolidate skeletons for display purposes but wonder  whether its use is appropriate for research collections.   Thanks, Michi
 "Building awareness, one skeleton at a time"   
> Cetacea Contracting, Ltd.
> 250-931-8884
> www.cetacea.ca
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