Applications Leica SM2010 R

The knife angle is important to the application

Charles W. Scouten, Ph.D., Leica Microsystems

To prepare biological tissue for observation under a microscope, the tissue is usually cut in thin slices. Most biological tissue is too soft to cut; the knife would push into it and compress it, even if the cutting edge was very sharp.

Therefore, the tissue is either frozen and sectioned in a cryostat or embedded in a hardening material like paraffin or resin, or cut while still soft with a vibrating blade microtome. The correct knife angle is the subject of much misunderstanding, misleading experience, and incorrect information passed between microtomists, but in fact can be logically derived.

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