Adhesive for bone

Alan J. Hawk <alan.hawk [at] afip__osd__mil> writes

>We have a skeleton that was damaged recently and we need to reattach
>one part of the leg.  The bone is very porous.  I was thinking of a
>couple of possibilities for the adhesive; the ever popular Acryloid
>B-72, but the mixture I have are either very liquidly or a very
>thick sticky paste. ...

I also found B-72 rather too sticky for porous and friable bone and
prefer HMG as adhesive. Our museum conservator suggested using a
consolidant (Paraloid B-72 diluted with acetone) in several coats
prior to gluing, with the first coat very dilute. Worked well and is
reversible, but of course the treated bone cannot then be used for
carbon dating or other isotope studies.

William Meacham
Honorary Research Fellow
Centre of Asian Studies
University of Hong Kong


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                  Conservation DistList Instance 20:14
                Distributed: Friday, September 15, 2006
                       Message Id: cdl-20-14-004
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