[Histonet] RE: bone holders

[Gayle Callis]

With a band saw, using pieces of 2 x 4 soft pine wood should hold the bones.  You don't want the saw blade to hit a metal holder as the blade may shatter and dulled, but worst of all is the potential for injury to operator.  We used this method to saw through whole lengths of femurs of calves\(huge!) and other animals when using a meat cutters band saw.   It worked for human femoral heads too.   Simple grasp the bone between the pieces of wood - a nice safe way to prevent losing a finger.  You can soak the wood in bleach later, or simply discard for incineration.  The wood is cheap and doesn't hurt the blade.   Try to have more teeth per inch in a saw blade, you will get smoother, cleaner cuts,   We were able to saw with water running on the blade, but that is not always possible.  However it keeps the bone from being burned by high speed saws. 

Holding the bone this way allowed us to get precise 2 mm to 1 cm slabs for doing large decalcified bone samples.   

Good luck

Gayle M. Callis 
HT,HTL,MT(ASCP)
Bozeman MT