Thread: Hones and Edges Under the Microscope

When I was a kid one of my uncles took me on a tour of the shop where he worked. He was a machinist and worked for the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, MN. In fact he made the first heart-lung machine. In showing off the shop, he took me by a machine which absolutely facscinated me. That machine sharpened knives used to section samples for pathology work. It had a large, horizontal circular plate that looked like green glass and which rotated slowly against a knife held in a clamp that would hold one side to the plate, then rotate it so the other side was held to the plate. Once having gone through the correct number of cycles to get sharpened properly, these knives would slice off .002" thick sections of samples so they could be microscopically examined.

I just figure that somehow we should be able to not only replicate edges like that, but also be able to describe them as well. Perhaps it is not as simple as pointing to the picture and saying, "see, see, that's what it should look like," but it would be something pretty close to that. "Get close to that appearance, and you're probably using a correct technique and getting close to the edge you want."

Dream on grasshopper, dream on, Bruce

Originally Posted by Bruce

I just figure that somehow we should be able to not only replicate edges like that

How did they shave? Whiskers, I mean, not frozen tissue samples. I'm sure they shaved tissue samples just fine...

Originally Posted by mparker762

How did they shave? Whiskers, I mean, not frozen tissue samples. I'm sure they shaved tissue samples just fine...

They cut hair perfectly well but many of them would be awkward to hold. No I'm not going to try one out as I don't really relish the thought of putting a blade against my face that has cut some pretty strange things.
Unless someone wants to donate some blades?
Not that I'd be able to use many of the sizes and shapes of diamond/glass or disposable blades afterwards.

mparker,

How they shaved? Dunno, this tour was taken long before started shaving whiskers and that being the case, I was greatly more curious about how it could shave meat so much thinner than the dried beef I occasionally had for lunch.

, Bruce

Originally Posted by murph

Unless someone wants to donate some blades?

I think Randy Tuttle has a bunch of microtome blades, or at least he did at one time. They show up on ebay as well.

Just a personal observation on the coticule-with-slurry edge: I tried a shave-test with an edge that I finished on my coticule with a thick slurry. It was pretty rough. I've been able to get nice shaves by using the coticule with no slurry. I was thinking that maybe the less polished edge might cut better--more teeth on the edge.

So I think the extra polish shown in the photos is a good thing.

Josh

Just a thought,
Josh