Gots to love these 38 polished shell beads

[Pullenrock]

I great gatherer friend of mine gathered these 38 polished shell beads from a mound on Tennessee river....ive aquired of course and hope to add to the strand here in the near future...Archaic period..as bentons were coming out of this mound....

[kansas]

Those are awesome... I'm still looking for my first bead. Good luck in the hunt.
Travis

[greywolf22]

Cool beans. Love those beads.
Jackk

[tomclark]

Killer beads!  Pls don't wash them or scrub them unless with a very very soft brush, you don't want to wash/chip away any of the brownish red patina.  They also need to be preserved with Gomer's Solution.
Awesome, we really only get Woodland shell beads.      

[Pullenrock]

Thanks tom..these are fresh and was wondering bout preserving...gomers solution unh?

[tomclark]

One small tube of duco glue per pint of acetone boom.  As simple as mixing it up, putting them  in and wait till the fizz is done.  Take out and put on paper towel and they dry immediately without being shiney and is great preservative, as good as what the museums use, certainly what I use for shell beads like those.  You might even be able to do them all at one time.   There is another brand of glue that is the same that if you have trouble finding the green duco you can use the other  I can look it up, Gomer posted it a little while back because the brand name duco was getting harder to find, used to get at walmart, target, etc, but now only like ACE hardware, maybe others....   
Per the Doc (cut and pasted, little mutated):
"We use Duco glue and Acetone for all our sealing needs both personally and for customers in the majority of situations. I am sending our sealing recipe for dried artifacts. The mixing can be changed if one prefer's different finishes. The finish we prefer is basically obtained by mixing one tube of glue per a pint of Acetone. One gallon of Acetone plus 8 tubes of glue should give you enough solution to dip this artifact in.  You leave the artifact in the soultion untill it quits fizzing or bubbling. When you take it out it will dry very quickly and can even be held while it dries. If one has any whitening to appear from moisture still trapped inside one can lightly wipe the areas with Acetone to get rid of. This sealing will not change the looks of the artifact. So however it looks now that is how it will look when done. Only if it is dipped more than once will the outside finish change. Hope this helps. If it ends up being more than you bargained for we can do it for you.....Gomer
The Duco glue is sold at Wal-Marts, etc. It is in a green and yellow colored tube and costs about $1.29 a tube. This gives pretty much exactly the same results as Butvar and Acetone that Universities use."  Butvar leaves a nasty shiney look to everything you use it on!  Use the duco acetone mix!
try the duco/acetone recipe on your shells. It has saved
many a collection from deterioration, especially old or artifact shell. It
works on shell, bone, porous pottery, fossils (smaller ones, see info below)
and many other items with similar porosity and in need of
solidification/preservation. On new shell it will preserve color longer
than without and seal the surface.
When you use one tube per pint of acetone, put item in only when it is
COMPLETELY DRY. Drying some artifacts is an art and science unto itself.
More important with bone items since they are more porous. The mixture
permeates, doesn't just coat the outside. The item will "fizz", when that
stops just take it out and it dries instantly. Some harder items like new
shell may not fizz much at all. Doesn't hurt to leave it in the fluid for 15
min. if it doesn't fizz or after it's stopped fizzing.
(Gomer, as he is known in arrowhead circles, real name Thornton Pyles is an
extremely talented and professional restorer of artifacts, pottery, he has a
website for his business. He's responsible originally for the "recipe" and
disseminating it amongst collectors. LOL, he is responsible for many tubes
of Duco to be sold in at least the past 22-23 years, hahahah!!!! True! We
were all using a beeswax, Butvar or no preservation technique for many
years. Wax darkens and butvar is very shiny, horrible, but what museums
use, the duco/acetone is the best. Museums should use it instead of butvar
because of the discoloration, no brainer!)
Here's what I've been sending and posting for years, most if it originally
from "Gomer" to whom I always give credit and reference to : Gomerize,
Gomerization, Gomer's Recipe, etc. LOL.
"We use Duco glue and Acetone for all our sealing needs both personally and
for customers in the majority of situations. I am sending our sealing recipe
for dried artifacts. The mixing can be changed if one prefer's different
finishes. The finish we prefer is basically obtained by mixing one tube of
glue per a pint of Acetone. One gallon of Acetone plus 8 tubes of glue
should give you enough solution to dip this artifact in. You leave the
artifact in the soultion untill it quits fizzing or bubbling. When you take
it out it will dry very quickly and can even be held while it dries. If one
has any whitening to appear from moisture still trapped inside one can
lightly wipe the areas with Acetone to get rid of. This sealing will not
change the looks of the artifact. So however it looks now that is how it
will look when done. Only if it is dipped more than once will the outside
finish change. Hope this helps. If it ends up being more than you bargained
for we can do it for you.....Gomer
The Duco glue is in a green and yellow colored tube and costs about $1.29 a
tube (old recipe and price!). This gives pretty much exactly the same
results as Butvar and Acetone that Universities use." Butvar leaves a nasty
shiney look to everything you use it on! Use the duco acetone mix!
Additional explanations about large bone items, etc.:
In preserving very large bone items using the amount of Acetone it would
take with either Duco or Butvar glue is very dangerous on ones personal
health. The vapors alone from this much open Acetone will rock your socks
off and who knows how many brain cells one looses (I can be an example on
that, lol).
The Duco Acetone is the best way to seal dry small to medium size objects.
There it is much easier to contain harmful vapors. It is cheap and as Joshua
discussed it is very easy to get desired results that suit one person versus
another.
Note: In this crazy mixed up world we live in Duco glue is no longer sold by
Wal-Mart..... One can still buy it on line at the normal $1.29 a tube price
but the normally the S/H charge is 8 to 10 times more costly than a single
tube. Though you will pay double the price for a single tube, normally $2.79
"Ace Hardware does handle it and on display in most stores I have found.
(Will have to add Lowes...)
As bad as I hate to advertise for Elmer's Glue (NOT THE WHITE STUFF, its
useless!!!) they do have two products that do work well with large bone
projects. They are cheap and safer than the large volume of Acetone required
for such projects. They take more practise to use in getting a good natural
finish that does not look like its glued but it can be done. It is their two
brands of outside glue. One is Yellow in color and the other a light tan and
as most of their products can be diluted with water. The advantage of these
two products compared to the AWFUL,GOOD FOR NOTHING EXCEPT A LAST RESORT ON
SAVING SOMETHING "WHITE GLUE" is they resist any humidity change, which the
White glue cannot do.
It takes very little glue compared to the amount of water to get a good mix
and constant application to keep the coating even and thin but one can do a
good job safely on large "DRY" bone items. It will not soak to the center of
a artifact though as Acetone/Duco/Butvar will. In large items as skulls,
large leg bones one has the advantage of a massive piece of bone giving its
ownself strength to a point versus say, a slender fragile bone fish hook
which has no mass.
Again "WET" bone and especially precious Ivory are all together different
ball games and take much more time and different techingue. I am speaking
here only on "DRY" large mass bone items for the Elmer products. There are
many different other chemicals one could use but most are hard to find, not
cheap and just not worth the effort in using for the common man."

[Stonetools]

Sweet.................Mike

[AnnitaPeters]

Im sorry for being so dumb but wouldn't you want to leave them as found with no solutions added?I think they look great just the way they are.I am still learning only been arrowheading a few times.

[rokhedred]

Love those beads! I've only found one. The shell is beautiful material.

[rokhedred]

Thanks for the info on the sealant. I have a sandstone bead and am so afraid it's going to crumble over time.