Dentist's drill for cleaning inscriptions on ossuaries

Barnea Levi Selavan <selavan [at] netvision__net__il> writes

>I thought this note may be of interest to List members. Dr. Ari
>Greenspan just helped the Israel Antiquities Authority last week to
>clean inscriptions on ancient ossuaries with his dentist tools.

I couldn't agree more with the above statement of Barnea Levi
Selavan that "a dentist's drill performs wonders." It's wonderful to
learn that the conservators in Athens have been using a dental
technology in conservation of the archeological objects.

At the Graphics Conservation Laboratory of Cornell University, one
of these wonder drills has been scrutinized for its use in paper and
painting conservation.  Several years ago, at my dentist's office,
along with a dental vision/ telescope from the Design for Vision,
Inc., I have discovered the dental, hi-tech handpiece/drill, which
runs cool, practically without producing heat. This feature was
important in consideration for using this equipment.  In 2006, I
experimented, and in 2007, was practicing removal of synthetic
adhesive from several drawings on paper by German artist, Hans
Grohs. Presently I'm involved in research and experimentation in
application of this, indeed cutting-edge, technology for removal of
rigid supports, such as masonite. I'm writing an abstract for the
AIC Annual Conference, 2008, and if it's approved, I will share my
experience and thoughts on potential applications of this dental
hi-tech equipment with my colleagues.

Tatyana Petukhova
Senior Paper Conservator / Conservation Specialist
Graphics Conservation Laboratory
106 Library Annex
E. Palm Rd.
Cornell University
Ithaca NY 14853
607-253-3164


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                  Conservation DistList Instance 21:18
                 Distributed: Wednesday, August 1, 2007
                       Message Id: cdl-21-18-005
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