Ian
If you do not seal the surfaces then the tissue will dehydrate during storage,
or will absorb moisture from the environment depending on conditions of storage.
After some time you may get invasion of various molds etc. and even end up with
other pests getting at the tissue. This was discussed some time ago and is in
the archives.
Dipping the surface of the block in wax only forms a temporary seal that easily
separates. I prefer to run a hot knife over the surface of the block to seal it.

There is probably no reason that you couldn't seal with plastic or vacuum seal
except that it's a lot of extra work compared to hot sealing the surface.
Additionally, the packages, if vacuum sealed will be a bit more difficult to
store.
Barry

Clarke Ian wrote:

> Hi all,
> does anyone seal their block faces with wax for storage purposes ?If so at
> what point do you seal them,once a day/week or does anyone do this straight
> after the cut.The reason I am asking this is we have had a problem of block
> deterioration as the block store we use at present is not environmentally
> controlled.Does anyone utilise other chemicals such as thin coats of plastic
> or vacuum packing?
> Thanks in advance.
> Ian Cla