Patty,

I can offer you three suggestions for you to try regarding the use of your
scroll saw in cutting femoral heads:

1.  Try #5 Precision Ground Teeth (PGT) blades manufactured by OLSON in the
States or their #2 range.

2.  Experiment with spiral scroll saw blades.

3.  Junior hacksaw blades can also be fitted to a scroll saw but you may
have to cut them down to 5 inches in length.  The blades come in two types,
one for cutting wood and the other for cutting metal.

I saw at our BMS conference here in the UK a new gadget for cutting thin
slices of femoral head.  It consists of a clamping device to hold the head
and a guide into which you introduce a hacksaw.  The hacksaw differs in
that this one takes two blades running parallel and separated from each
other by a small gap thus providing the means to cut thin slices through
the femoral head.  I would strongly advise you to contact your MOPEC
representative for details.  Sorry I can't supply their address in the
States, but if you are stuck I am sure I could find out for you.

Best of luck.

Jim.

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At 11:24 10/10/99 EDT, Histopatty@aol.com wrote:
>Recently, one of our pathologist instructed us to buy a Scroll Saw so that
we 
>would be safer cutting femoral head. (Our current method; using a Large 
>butchers ban saw tends to throw head at a great speed when you loose your 
>grip.  Ouch!!  Not to mention the risk of loosing a digit ) The problem with 
>the new saw, is that the blades for this saw are very thin 2-3mm and the 
>sections are jagged, when we replaced the blades with a thicker blade
(6-7mm) 
>we are not able to adjust the tension tight enough to utilize it.  Also the 
>biomed department thinks we will not find a blade that will work.  The Saw 
>was ordered along with a variety of blades that range from metal cutting to 
>softer material cutting blades.  The pathologist swears that a similar saw 
>was used at Johns Hopkins, where he did his residency. Any help on ways to 
>utilize this saw would be greatly appreciated.  Thanks
>
>Patty Eneff
>OKC, OK
>
>
>
Jim Hall,
MDA Equipment Evaluator,
Department of Histopathology,
University College London Hospitals,
Rockefeller Building,
University Street,
London, WC1E 6JJ.
Tel.No. 0171 209 6042
Fax 0171 387 3674