Patsy Ruegg notes:

>>I think the "biggest single reason for this improvement" could be 
disposable blades.<<

If better wax isn't, then disposable blades certainly are. Amazingly, most 
pathologists have refused to change what they cut frozen sections with, and 
only occasionally do I see disposable blade retrofits on the 30 year old 
cryostats that are the norm in the small practices I visit. Yes, they still 
make the old style blades, which now have to be sent somewhere in Florida to 
be sharpened, and it's like trying to cut a frozen section with a butter 
knife. I talked one practice into buying a retrofit. I loved it, everybody 
else refused to try it, and they got rid of it.

Those of us who remember the changeover to disposable microtome blades 
remember that for the first month the histotechs pissed and moaned about 
them, and after that you couldn't get them to go back to the old blades at 
pistol point. Pathologists, who cut only a few sections, take years to get to 
the point where they like the change.

Bob Richmond
Samurai Pathologist
Knoxville TN