[Nhcoll-l] Stabilizing cannel coal

[Anderson, Gretchen]

Dear Colleagues,

I just received this question from my vertebrate paleontology department and am looking for thoughts on how to better stabilize these fragile specimens.  The specimens are fragile and some are extremely thin.

A Research Associate in VP would like to use a marine epoxy<https://www.jbweld.com/product/marineweld-syringe> to stabilize thin pieces of cannel coal that contain impressions of fossils. His practice is to coat the back of the fossil with a thick layer of the epoxy. He mentioned that this system had been used at the Field Museum.  The specimens are studied by either making a latex peel of them or a CT-scan to yield a positive of the impression. The plan to go forward is to use CT scanning rather than latex peel, when possible. The RA champing at the bit to stabilize a few specimens.

I am concerned about continuing the use of epoxy and would much rather use a method that is more conservation friendly.  I would like to suggest a different way to do this, perhaps using a material like remay or a light carbon steel fabric with Paraloid B-72, lining the back of the fossil to provide improved stability.  This would be reversible. We are currently testing this on some scrap pieces of the coal.
What are the standards for preparing this kind of fossil? Does anyone have experience with this type of epoxy? If so, how stable is it?

Any and all advice would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks!

Gretchen Anderson

Conservator

Carnegie Museum of Natural History

Andersong at CarnegieMNH.Org





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