[Nhcoll-l] Recommended method(s) for cleaning taxidermy mounts.....

Tue Jun 18 05:44:22 EDT 2019

Thanks Gali and thanks Cory for bringing this subject to general attention.

Interesting to see your careful approach to this problem.  Ally Rae also mentioned the use of alcohol (IM Spirit) to clean feathers and which is very effective, using re-usable cotton buds. This works well but be aware of the solvent removing traces of natural oils from feathers with the dirt; generally this is OK but don’t immerse the feathers or prolong the treatment more than necessary.

For cleaning really hairy mammals (longer-haired bears for example) I use Vanish foam.  I know this is a commercial product with a cocktail of chemicals in it and many may throw up hands in horror BUT it really does work and gets masses of deeply ingrained dirt out within minutes!  I then remove the deposits left by the foam by alcohol rubbing (gently) with paper towelling and give  the specimen a gentle blow dry to set the fur.  Some may regard this technique as somewhat maverick but until some conservation-friendly and easily-available product  appears……  So far, none of the specimens I have treated this way have shown any signs of hair deterioration and I have been using this for over 12 years.  The foam slightly rehydrates over-dry surface skin (noses, eyelids &c) and makes them more receptive to skin dressing agents such as Bollmann’s Ultra Soft (sadly no longer available in the UK). 
The foam technique does not do well on birds as the feathers become clogged with the foam and it's really difficult to remove. Perhaps Tom Strang might be able to shed more light here?

For arsenic, since I cannot afford an XRF for only occasional use, I have an arsenic testing kit of a more chemical nature; it takes about 10 minutes to get a result and results are analysed using a colour spot card graded in parts per billion, so really sensitive. 

With all good wishes, Simon.

Simon Moore MIScT, RSci, FLS, ACR
Conservator of Natural Sciences and Cutlery Historian, 

www.natural-history-conservation.com 

> On 18 Jun 2019, at 07:28, Gali Beiner <gali.beiner at mail.huji.ac.il> wrote:
> 
> Hi Cory,
> 
> If you are aware of the safety requirements, then I won't go into this subject (and just mention the words ventilation - PPE). As for cleaning the taxidermy mounts, we have our own ongoing project of cleaning and surveying a bird taxidermy collection. The basic procedures in use are:
> 
> 1. Dust removal from feathers - using a vacuum cleaner (the sort with a switch to control suction level, turned down to minimum) and a fine textile mesh. The mesh is first carefuly laid on the bird, one hand is used to keep the mesh in place and the other hand holds the rubber tube we had attached to the vacuum cleaner to create a smaller suction arm. This way, dust can be vacuumed without pulling out feathers. The net has to be lifted off very carefuly at the end of the process, but once one gets used to how it's done, it is easy.
> 
> 2. Glass eyes, and keratin beaks and claws - We mostly cleaned these with deionized water in very small quantity - simply using cotton wool swabs dipped in the water, pushed on the edge of the water container to squeeze out extra water and then appled to the surfaces to be cleaned. Usually works well, and because so little solvent is used, the risks to the substrate matter are small. It turned out to be more effective in dust removal compared with other solvents, and of course safer to let our student workers work with.  
> 
> 3. Mounts - usually the same as in article 2 above, because upon testing, water turned out to be safer that other solvents for the type of paints most often used in our mounts, but that needed to be determined for each mount individually. You may need to do your own solubility testing for yours, just as any paintings conservator would do with a painted surface. In our case, the mounts were most often painted wooden rectangles, with the occassional fake rock and many with attached natural wooden branches (with bark, etc.).  A diorama may differ considerably in this respect.
> 
> I don't know whether you need to do feather repairs, but there is information on how to do that. At the time, a few years back, I had participated in a workshop on this subject and the recommended adhesive for repairing broken feather shafts was mowilith, 50%-50% in acetone. Since then, I had used that successfully in our own bird collection. The workshop had demonstrated techniques as well, taught by instructor Allyson Rae.
> 
> As for the arsenic and other stuff quite possibly present on your taxidermy specimens, if you have any possibility of calling someone with a portable XRF to do some random non-invasive sampling of surfaces for you, this could give you a clearer picture of what exactly is present. We did a little of that ourselves and plan to do so more extensively in the future. It really helps, both in terms of getting some real information and in terms of making the hazards clear to everybody involved in working with the specimens. 
> 
> Hope this helps,
> 
> Gali
> 
> On Mon, Jun 17, 2019 at 6:17 PM Cory Redman <corymredman at gmail.com <mailto:corymredman at gmail.com>> wrote:
> Our museum will be tackling the task of cleaning our three largest dioramas.  Each diorama has 30-40 birds and small mammals taxidermy mounts that have not been cleaned in a decade.  The dioramas were created in the mid 90's, but the taxidermy mounts are much older than that (assume the presence of arsenic).  
> 
> Any recommendations about method and tips or tricks you can pass along about cleaning would be greatly appreciated.  I am aware of the safety protection/precautions that need to be employed.  No one on the team, including myself has tackled such a large job as this.  
> 
> Cheers,
> Cory   
> 
>  
> 
> -- 
> Cory M. Redman (BSc; MSc; PhD)
> Science Curator
> Grand Rapids Public Museum
> 
> 272 Pearl Street NW  
> Grand Rapids, MI 49504 
> www.grpm.org <http://www.grpm.org/>
> 
> office: 616:929:1766
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> 
> -- 
> Gali Beiner (ACR)
> Conservator, Palaeontology Lab
> National Natural History Collections
> The Hebrew University of Jerusalem 
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> Jerusalem 91904, Israel
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> Natural History Collections (SPNHC), an international society whose
> mission is to improve the preservation, conservation and management of
> natural history collections to ensure their continuing value to
> society. See http://www.spnhc.org for membership information.
> Advertising on NH-COLL-L is inappropriate.

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