Are steel blades commonly used to section glycol methacrylate?

• A. Yes
• B. No
• C. Only for ultra-thin sections
• D. Only for paraffin blocks

Answer: (B)

Glycol methacrylate is a hard resin embedding medium, so the knife used to section it must maintain a very sharp edge under wear. Steel blades tend to dull quickly when cutting such hard blocks, which leads to compression, chatter, and tearing in the sections. To produce crisp, uniform sections from resin-embedded tissue, higher-hardness knife materials like tungsten carbide (and occasionally diamond) are preferred because they resist wear and keep a sharp edge longer. For that reason, steel blades are not commonly used for sectioning glycol methacrylate.