Folks,

Just a note from my own experimentation: rubber band residues, old glue, old tape adhesive and other nasty stains (including crude oil and old coats of wax, baby oil and so on) can be removed using Toluene. This is sold at serious hardware stores as a thinner for fiberglass resin. I have never managed to damage a shell with Toluene, which is not surprising as it is not a solvent of organic fats. You might find that Acetone (nail varnish remover) is also effective, as it's chemically quite similar. Both are highly volatile, though, so do this outside and don't smoke...

PC.


Paul Callomon
Collections Manager
Malacology, Invertebrate Paleontology and General Invertebrates
Department of Malacology
Academy of Natural Sciences
1900 Parkway, Philadelphia PA 19103-1195, USA
Tel 215-405-5096
Fax 215-299-1170
Secretary, American Malacological Society
On the web at www.malacological.org

>>> <[log in to unmask]> 2/14/2008 8:14 AM >>>
Hi Matt and others--

I also had an unfortunate experience with a bivalve purchased at Melbourne.
The valves were held together with 2 very old dried out pieces of masking
tape.  After I was finally able to remove the tape with much soaking and some
gentle scraping, I found permanent markings on the shell's surface where the tape
had been used!  Unfortunately, oiling has been to no avail.

Carolyn



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