Never rewet a dried fossil! - WHY?

[0dinofthenorth]

I made a mistake once, I decided to clean some belemnites (that I got as a present so I have no idea of the location) and they went a bad whitish colour.
I read somewhere, never to rewet a dried fossil.
Does anyone know why this is?
Gr,
Thomas.

[ROAB]

Not properly de-salted, so the salt gets called out by the water? (just taking a wild un-educated guess though)

Not possible to polish it back to it's origional colors?

[0dinofthenorth]

roab wrote:
Not properly de-salted, so the salt gets called out by the water? (just taking a wild un-educated guess though)

Not possible to polish it back to it's origional colors?

OK, thank you for the answer. You are most likely correct. Do you have any idea from which location this could be from?
Gr,
Thomas.

[ROAB]

Well you would be better of with an answer from the experts here since my experience is extremely limited, but i've found similair ones in normandy (france, jurasic) last summer. (see topic: http://www.fossiel.net/forums/viewtopic ... 633#105498)

Edit: The ones i have are flint-rock

[Bewerkt door ROAB op 21-12-2010 om 11:24 NL]

[0dinofthenorth]

roab wrote:
Well you would be better of with an answer from the experts here since my experience is extremely limited, but i've found similair ones in normandy (france, jurasic) last summer. (see topic: http://www.fossiel.net/forums/viewtopic ... 633#105498)

Edit: The ones i have are flint-rock

[Bewerkt door ROAB op 21-12-2010 om 11:24 NL]

I see, I will get mine out of my glass cabinet later today, but I think that they are of flint origin. Have you tried putting yours in water?:P

[0dinofthenorth]

Hi,
yes, I think that they are flint.
Gr,
Thomas.

[ROAB]

Hehehe Actually yes, i've desalted them for a week, refreshing the water daily. And after cleaning them i put them into a parrafine solution to seal them.

But i must admit i havn't found the best way to clean the lime residue without slightly damaging the flint itself so its not as polished as i wanted. (was my first experiment with fossile cleaning / sealing)

Never the less it came out nice and they are clean and in pretty good condition now.

Totally in love with parrafine now

[0dinofthenorth]

You are good!

Do you know any good ways of preserving Pyritised wood?

[ROAB]

0dinofthenorth schreef:
You are good!

Do you know any good ways of preserving Pyritised wood?

No i have never done anything with that so hopefully someone can give you a good tip on that.

I usually just try and hope for the best :p

(cant say that 'no fossiles where harmed in the proces' though)

[Ahuijsmans]

I'm no expert but couldn't you use a vinegar solution to dissolve the lime remains?
Flint is pretty acid resistant....

Putting anything in a parrafine solution effectively blocks the influence of oxygen on the subject. If pyritised wood degenerates due to chemical reaction of oxygen on the pyrite then this would be a good solution...hypothetically..