Thread: microtome?

found a jospeh rodgers in the wild today and realized it is a microtome. i know the modern use is for cutting slivers of tissue for microscopic exam. but the machine is a bit complex to my recollection. were tissue samples just cut carefully with the SR razor looking microtome, by hand? did people shave with them during that time period? or was it strictly a lab tool? it was an interesting find. curious to get more info on them?

Not sure if I can tell you much more than you already know about them. I do know that they can be honed up to shave, and shave well at that. The one I have is a little on the large side and can be a little unwieldy, but it shaves among the best of them. Pictured below with a 5/8 Dovo.

Your microtome is quite large compared to one that I have. At least I think it is a microtome. My confusion is that it is the same length as a regular straight and my eyes aren’t keen enough to determine if it isn’t actually a wedge SR. Previous opinions from SRP members is that it is a microtome.

Originally Posted by DZEC

Your microtome is quite large compared to one that I have. At least I think it is a microtome. My confusion is that it is the same length as a regular straight and my eyes aren’t keen enough to determine if it isn’t actually a wedge SR. Previous opinions from SRP members is that it is a microtome.

You could take a straight edge and put the narrow edge on each side of the blade. If one side is flat ground and the is concave ground you may have a microtome. No light under it being flat ground.

The only microtome I have actually seen was larger than a straight razor with a fixed handle. There was a false spine that you attached to it when you waned to hone it.

Bob.

A microtome isn't designed to shave with. Sure you can hone it up and it works but then again you could probably hone up a screwdriver and it will shave too.

Originally Posted by thebigspendur

A microtome isn't designed to shave with. Sure you can hone it up and it works but then again you could probably hone up a screwdriver and it will shave too.

Sounds like a good idea for a contest!

The design of a microtome blade is akin to the design of a Japanese Kamisori. Thus, once honed, it should shave, but like a Kamisori, you have to keep one side against your face. With a normal two-sided bevel, we usually change sides.

You can hone it and shave with it like a kamisori.

And yes people did and still do use microtomes for sectioning by hand.

Microtomes were designed to be used with a base piece. It had a screw type adjuster that allowed you to raise your sample by a very small amount above a flat table, so that when you slid the flat side of the microtome across the table you'd get a clean cut of known thickness. I have one or two somewhere; I'll post pics if/when I find them.

Found this pic on the internet. It is pretty much what we used in my grade 10 biology class to cut thin sections for viewing under a microscope. We’d take a sample and pour paraffin around it in the nut, let it harden and advance it using the bolt until you could take a thin slice with the razor blade.