Bone and Shell Preservation Duco Acetone

[tomclark]

This tip and advice was given to US by Dr. Gomer (Thornton Pyles) who shall forever be King of Conservation and an awful good buddy for saving mine and other's collections.
Per the Doc (mostly):

We use Duco glue and Acetone for all our sealing needs both personally and for customers in the majority of situations. I am sending our sealing recipe for dried artifacts. The mixing can be changed if one prefer's different finishes. The finish we prefer is basically obtained by mixing one tube of glue per a pint of Acetone. One gallon of Acetone plus 8 tubes of glue should give you enough solution to dip this artifact in. You leave the artifact in the soultion untill it quits fizzing or bubbling. When you take it out it will dry very quickly and can even be held while it dries. If one has any whitening to appear from moisture still trapped inside one can lightly wipe the areas with Acetone to get rid of. This sealing will not change the looks of the artifact. So however it looks now that is how it will look when done. Only if it is dipped more than once will the outside finish change. Hope this helps. If it ends up being more than you bargained for we can do it for you.....Gomer

The Duco glue is sold at Wal-Marts, etc. It is in a green and yellow colored tube and costs about $1.29 a tube. This gives pretty much exactly the same results as Butvar and Acetone that Universities use." Butvar leaves a nasty shiney look to everything you use it on! Use the duco acetone mix!

try the duco/acetone recipe on your shells. It has saved
many a collection from deterioration, especially old or artifact shell. It
works on shell, bone, porous pottery, fossils (smaller ones, see info below)
and many other items with similar porosity and in need of
solidification/preservation. On new shell it will preserve color longer
than without and seal the surface.
When you use one tube per pint of acetone, put item in only when it is
COMPLETELY DRY. Drying some artifacts is an art and science unto itself.
More important with bone items since they are more porous. The mixture
permeates, doesn't just coat the outside. The item will "fizz", when that
stops just take it out and it dries instantly. Some harder items like new
shell may not fizz much at all. Doesn't hurt to leave it in the fluid for 15
min. if it doesn't fizz or after it's stopped fizzing.

(Gomer, as he is known in arrowhead circles, real name Thornton Pyles is an
extremely talented and professional restorer of artifacts, pottery, he has a
website for his business. He's responsible originally for the "recipe" and
disseminating it amongst collectors. LOL, he is responsible for many tubes
of Duco to be sold in at least the past 22-23 years, hahahah!!!! True! We
were all using a beeswax, Butvar or no preservation technique for many
years. Wax darkens and butvar is very shiny, horrible, but what museums
use, the duco/acetone is the best. Museums should use it instead of butvar
because of the discoloration, no brainer!)

Here's what I've been sending and posting for years, most if it originally
from "Gomer" to whom I always give credit and reference to : Gomerize,
Gomerization, Gomer's Recipe, etc. LOL.

"We use Duco glue and Acetone for all our sealing needs both personally and
for customers in the majority of situations. I am sending our sealing recipe
for dried artifacts. The mixing can be changed if one prefer's different
finishes. The finish we prefer is basically obtained by mixing one tube of
glue per a pint of Acetone. One gallon of Acetone plus 8 tubes of glue
should give you enough solution to dip this artifact in. You leave the
artifact in the soultion untill it quits fizzing or bubbling. When you take
it out it will dry very quickly and can even be held while it dries. If one
has any whitening to appear from moisture still trapped inside one can
lightly wipe the areas with Acetone to get rid of. This sealing will not
change the looks of the artifact. So however it looks now that is how it
will look when done. Only if it is dipped more than once will the outside
finish change. Hope this helps. If it ends up being more than you bargained
for we can do it for you.....Gomer

The Duco glue is in a green and yellow colored tube and costs about $1.29 a
tube (old recipe and price!). This gives pretty much exactly the same
results as Butvar and Acetone that Universities use." Butvar leaves a nasty
shiney look to everything you use it on! Use the duco acetone mix!

Additional explanations about large bone items, etc.:

In preserving very large bone items using the amount of Acetone it would
take with either Duco or Butvar glue is very dangerous on ones personal
health. The vapors alone from this much open Acetone will rock your socks
off and who knows how many brain cells one looses (I can be an example on
that, lol).

The Duco Acetone is the best way to seal dry small to medium size objects.
There it is much easier to contain harmful vapors. It is cheap and as Joshua
discussed it is very easy to get desired results that suit one person versus
another.
Note: In this crazy mixed up world we live in Duco glue is no longer sold by
Wal-Mart..... One can still buy it on line at the normal $1.29 a tube price
but the normally the S/H charge is 8 to 10 times more costly than a single
tube. Though you will pay double the price for a single tube, normally $2.79
"Ace Hardware does handle it and on display in most stores I have found.
(Will have to add Lowes...)

As bad as I hate to advertise for Elmer's Glue (NOT THE WHITE STUFF, its
useless!!!) they do have two products that do work well with large bone
projects. They are cheap and safer than the large volume of Acetone required
for such projects. They take more practise to use in getting a good natural
finish that does not look like its glued but it can be done. It is their two
brands of outside glue. One is Yellow in color and the other a light tan and
as most of their products can be diluted with water. The advantage of these
two products compared to the AWFUL,GOOD FOR NOTHING EXCEPT A LAST RESORT ON
SAVING SOMETHING "WHITE GLUE" is they resist any humidity change, which the
White glue cannot do.

It takes very little glue compared to the amount of water to get a good mix
and constant application to keep the coating even and thin but one can do a
good job safely on large "DRY" bone items. It will not soak to the center of
a artifact though as Acetone/Duco/Butvar will. In large items as skulls,
large leg bones one has the advantage of a massive piece of bone giving its
ownself strength to a point versus say, a slender fragile bone fish hook
which has no mass.

Again "WET" bone and especially precious Ivory are all together different
ball games and take much more time and different techingue. I am speaking
here only on "DRY" large mass bone items for the Elmer products. There are
many different other chemicals one could use but most are hard to find, not
cheap and just not worth the effort in using for the common man."

[joshuaream]

I've preserved my bone finds for quite some time, but have only recent started doing shell. I really wish I had started earlier. Chalky shell is a thing of the past.

I usually let the relics sit in my cabinet for a couple of months or a year to dry completely before dipping them.

I have my Duco and Acetone in a sealed jar, but the Acetone still evaporates. The first time you mix it up, treat a test
piece to see if you like it, and then use it. When you are done, make a line with a marker in the jar. Six months later most of the acetone will be gone and the liquid is thicker. I just add acetone back up to that line and shake it up. If I have a special piece to treat I just make a new batch, but for my average chunks I reuse the mix. I reuse it not so much for the cost savings, but just because I don't want to waste/dump the acetone. When I've used it several times, I just leave it uncovered outside and it evaporates and I throw away the jar.

[Trask]

I have Gomerized almost all of my bone and shell artifacts..Many have "come back " from the brink..

Does anyone know what the "active" ingredient is in the Duco that might be found in other "houshold type" glues?

I am Playing with some inpregnating/penetrating Epoxy we use in the stone industry to consolidate stone slabs..It leaves no residual surface evidence but is not as easy , safe or available as Duco...May also have some promising "wet" application on a water based siloxane sealer used for porus wet marble repair too..I'll report findings as I make some headway..

Again the DUCO/ ACETONE combo deserves a HUGE thanks to Gomer for being given so Freely! It's saved MANY thousands of years of precious relics.

[neralich]

Thanks for the post, Tom Clark and Gomer!

Gomer,, If you read this,, (or anybody else that may know)

I'm curious about the "drying out" time and certainty as to know when artifact will be ready for a preservation bath. I'm curious if you have ever heard of using a moisture detecting device?? I work in construction,, and prior to laying the hardwood floors/vinyl in residential homes, moisture requirements have to be met before they can properly and professionally do the job. They test the subfloor and the hardwood itself and when the moisture content is high (shown by a # reading on the device) ,,We add dehumidifiers to the home to speed the drying process. That leads me to wonder,,, if it can dry out the hardwood within a couple of days,,, should be able to do the same for artifacts??? Just put the artifact in same room near the de-humidifier...3 days later,, check with device...?? I would think that this would do the trick,,?

Jason

[joshuaream]

Jason,

Gomer is probably the best to answer this, but if it's from a normal dirt relatively dry site, I usually let it dry slowly. If it is from a beach site near salt water, I rinse it several times while wet with fresh water or the salt will crystalize and turn it to dust.

If it's soaking wet, I usually dry it with alcohol and treat it quickly. Alcohol probably isn't the best, but I have some little pieces of gourds, weavings, and wooden items found in water (caves or mucky swamps) that will decay very quickly when taken out of that environment.

[neralich]

Thanks, Josh. Reminds me of when I found old historic shell buttons in one of the feilds I hunt.. Went to get them out of my pocket and they disentegrated...Thank God it wasn't some rare artifact!

The device/dehumdifiers may be for the extreme and the device,, as I think about it now,, could only be used on more sizable artifacts such as a bone,,I would think. (if it would work at all??)

[tomclark]

If bone or shell is wet, that's the only problem with the whole process. Better slow for sure. I've seen bone and fossils split terribly and quickly from drying out too quick. Stuff has cracked/split on the way home! Sometimes I've put an item in a paper bag for a few weeks. If the item is very slightly wet inside then it will have show a coating of white after treatment. In my experience it whipes off with straight acetone real easy, if that happens.