[Histonet] Re: Sharpies, GOOD markers for cassettes & pencils

[David A. Wright]

Hi

I agree with Janet Bonner.  Sanford Sharpie Industrial Extra
Fine Point permanent markers (Sanford #13801) make excellent
lab labeling pens for use in difficult environments.  (I also
use the Industrial "fat" sharpies too).  You can easily get
them from most office supply companies.

I use them for everything - microfuge tubes, glassware,
labeling microslides... which is how I came to find them.  I
needed something better than pencil (which I had been brought
up to use as the "best" solvent resistant frosted slide
marker) when I began using SuperFrost Plus slides.  

Pencil on slides was was a recent discussion topic on
Histonet.  I meant to write at the time that with charged
glass, as with Superfrost Plus or DIY APES, fine graphite
particles produced by pencil writing are attracted to the
glass to give an ugly background speckling, especially at the
label end.  These pens solved my problem.

Depending on the surface (non)porosity & (non)"wickability",
you can produce really quite small writing.  I routinely use
the pens to write a dozen characters or so along the edge of
an APES coverglass used for processing those frozen sections
which I plan to prepare with aqueous mountant (Moewiol) and
then make permanent with resin using John Kiernan's
recommended "double coverslip sandwich on a slide" technique
(see the Archives!  [My title, not his - is there an easier
name for this?])

I should point out the pens are "solvent resistant" in that
the writing is still very easy to read after solvent/steam
exposure.  A small amount of dye does however leach out, just
on first contact with a strong solvent, so that my first
clearing bath of Xylene/Citrisolv does turn yellow-brown.  I
did worry at first that this might dye unstained tissue but
the next bath presumably removes it and I haven't seen any
problems.

All the best
-David
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Message: 10
Date: Tue, 24 May 2005 16:36:37 -0400
From: "Bonner, Janet" <Janet.Bonner <@t> FLHOSP.ORG>
Subject: RE: [Histonet] GOOD markers/pencils for cassettes
To: "'krat18 <@t> aol.com '" <krat18 <@t> aol.com>,

Statlab pens work great on the slides, but we can't use them
on the cassettes.  We use the Sanford Sharpie Industrial fine
point pen (available from Office Depot)...It has super
permanent ink and works fantastically.
-Janet
 
David A. Wright, Ph.D.
University of Chicago
Section of Neurosurgery, MC3026
5841 S. Maryland Ave
Chicago, IL 60637 USA
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