Dear Carla,

	Sounds like a good way to clean the knives & save some $.  Traditionally
pith from various reeds has been used, but more recently various companies
have been supplying polystyrene sticks.  Appropriately trimmed packing
peanuts should be fine, (although I wonder if they might be a little firm),
provided you use all the usual care & attention.  However I have always
used 100% ethanol when wiping the edge of the blade.  Distilled water is
for those rare occassions when you need to soak the whole knife to remove
some particularly nasty adherent section.  I section onto 20% ethanol to
remove wrinkles.  This eliminates the need for those various noxious
substances usually waved over the top of the waterbath.  I use Epon resin
&/or its substitutes, Spurrs may have a very low viscosity but I find it
too toxic for all but exceptional circumstances.

	Hope this helps

	Regards

	Rob

At 07:47 AM 5/28/99 -0600, you wrote:
>Hi everyone
>I am wondering what the rest of you use to clean your diamond knives after
>sectioning (we use Spurr's resing).  I have been told that packing peanuts
>soaked in distilled water work well.  Hmmm.  Looking forward to any other
ideas
>or comments.  
>Thank you very much,
>Carla Aiwohi
>Western Fisheries Research Center


R. Wadley, B.App.Sc, M.L.S
Laboratory Manager
Cellular Analysis Facility
School of Microbiology & Immunology
UNSW, New South Wales, Australia, 2052
Ph (BH) 	+61 (2) 9385 3517
Ph (AH)	+61 (2) 9555 1239
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E-mail	r.wadley@unsw.edu.au
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