William,
  I never "clean" my fossils.  I will remove as much attached material as
possible but I do not attempt to remove any stains.  The color they come
out of the formation is the color that they remain
 
  Yes, I occasionally add a consolidant to strengthen fragile fossils.  If
they are small, a few millimeters to a centimeter I store them in glass
shell vials.  If larger, I soak them in a solution of Butvar-76 and
acetone.  This then dries and leaves the Butvar resin in the shell.  The
nice aspect of this system is that you can remove the Butvar by placing
the treated fossil in several changes of acetone.  I try to work by the
maxim that whatever I use to treat a specimen should be able to be undone
by a future investigator.
 
Charlie
******************************************************************************
Charlie Sturm, Jr
Research Associate - Section of Invertebrate Zoology
                     Carnegie Museum of Natural History
Assistant Professor - Family Medicine
 
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On Thu, 8 Oct 1998, William Clendenin wrote:
 
> Questions for you fossil experts:
>
> I have a lot of small fossils I dug from the clay banks on Morningside
> Peninsula, Victoria, Australia. They are very fragile and the color of
> the clay from which they came.
>
> 1. Should I try to clean or bleach them?
>
> 2. Should I apply a coating to strengthen them?
>
> Bill Clendenin
> Sarasota, Florida
>