As you might imagine the sections are very big. 4X4mm. the trouble is that my glass knife gets dull right away and my 0.5um sections quickly become 1um sections. and when that happens, the sections have too many wrinkles to get a good image of the whole retina. Is there anything I can do short of buying a big diamond or sapphire knife?
Dear Brad Nelson , probably the cheapest solution would be to use a new glass knife. Often the central microscopy facilities at universities or group´s labs have access to a knife maker machine and they also stored the glass strips. Fabrication of new knives from the glass strips is quite easy, you only need to cut the strip in squares and each square in two square triangles. First you need to make a score and then apply pressure on the both sides of the score, so that the glass brokes cleanly through the score line.
Please have a look to the following link where the Leica´s team provided a clear description:
https://www.leica-microsystems.com/science-lab/brief-introduction-to-glass-knifemaking-for-electron-and-light-microscope-applications/
Probably the microscopists at your facilities would be kind enough to help you with this issue.
You also can make a fast search and find some already made glass knives for sale, but I think it would be better to make your own from scratch.
Hope this helps. Good luck with your research work!
Thank you for your answer. I do have a knife maker and make my own knives.
I am not sure whether you have an access to old type of Razor blades which is breakble. You can break in to a trangular shape piece which will cut the ocular tissues sharply and thinner !
Or perhaps you can try No 15 surgical feather blade ,We have used both in surgery in the eye
I'm not sure how a razor blade could be used with an ultra microtome. How would I mount it? These are epon embedded samples I am cutting.
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