Motorized sample movement is desirable to get more reproducible cutting speed and force. The best sections are obtained on these microtomes with a glass or tungsten carbide knife. Disposable tungsten carbide knives are available from Energy Beam Sciences which offer the ability to cut routine serial 1 micron thick sections. If the block is too soft to section dry the block in a warm oven or move to a less humid work environment. Sections are collected from the knife edge using tweezers and stretched by floating on a water bath.
Section stretching allows recovery of almost all the compression caused during sectioning.
Most procedures call for mounting your sections on slides before staining. Mounting thinner sections to slides before staining also helps to prevent folds from developing in the sections. If you are using slides precoated with silane, skip the protocol for coating your own. The full name is 3,aminopropyltriethoxysilane. Dip slides in double distilled water for one minute.