SPI Materials Science Diamond Knife

From pigmented plastics to hard refractory powders, you can always count on the SPI Materials Science Knife!

SPI Supplies offers the electron microscopist and ultramicrotomist the ultimate in Materials Science Diamond Knives. SPI Supplies was the very first supplier of diamond knives, in 1980, to introduce a special type of diamond knife to take into account some of the dramatic differences between life science and material science samples. There are still some of the unconverted, but it is just financially wasteful to apply "life science" knife to a materials science sample.

We are constantly amazed at the number of persons who tell us they find the SPI Materials Science Diamond Knives to be perfect also for the sectioning of hard tissue materials such as bone, cartilage and teeth.

Indeed some teaching institutions find the lower priced SPI Materials Supplies Science Diamond Knives to be an outstanding value for class work since after all, the lab work of the students is not going to be for publication anyhow!

So what is the secret! Very Simple. SPI Supplies does not try to remove the last striations from the edge of the knife. Typical questions: Are there a lot of striations? No, not very many. The exact number of striations might vary from knife to knife and we can not make any guarantee as to how many you will find on your knife, but these striations are so fine, that with the first cut of the typical materials science sample, deeper striations are produced than the original striations we are talking about removing! So why worry about them? And why not start saving money now?

The Knife with the Edge:
SPI Supplies Materials Science Diamond knives give you the quality you need at a price that is lower- up to 35% lower- than life science diamond knives. Each SPI Knife is shipped with a diagram of the diamond edge...and no knife is shipped unless it meets our high quality standards.

Special hint:
Cutting hard tissue life science sample? Worried about hydroxy apatite crystals in bone or teeth or other hard tissue such as chitin containing samples?

When selecting the SPI Supplies Materials Science Diamond Knife, select diamond "MT" and the standard default angle of 45°. Depending on your samples, a 55° might give longer knife lifetime, however, the knife will also be prone to produce compression effects. We know that papers have been published using 55°. angle knives, however we continue to be concerned about compression induced artifacts when using these higher angle knives.

Is there anything inherently wrong with a small angle on a materials science knife? No, and however well the knife cuts at 45°, it will cut even easier and faster at, for example, 40°. However the knife wear rate will be appreciably higher and the knife, literally will wear out much faster. Just the same, there are some samples in the world that can not be cut at 45°. but which (apparently) can be cut at 40°. Send us your questions about this and we will try our best to answer them, based on the experience of ourselves, and our in-house laboratory, and also others.

Selection of the boat-style: Unless there is a personal preference for some other style, for room temperature sectioning, we would recommend Boat "S" unless cryo sectioning is contemplated, and then we would recommend "D" for Dry Cryo.

Send us your "old" knives for resharpening! We can do any brand, not just those purchased from SPI Supplies. SPI can return your worn out knives in need of resharpening, to you, just like they were the day they were new! And you can save a bundle of money over the price of new knives as well. If that should be your decision, don't return the knives until you apply for a Return Authorization number and you hear back from us with the special return number.

New Knife			Resharpening
Size (mm)	SPI#	Each	In Stock	Size (mm)	SPI#	Each	In Stock
2.0	09901-AB	$1161.72	No	2.0	09901R-AB	$735.40	No
2.5	09902-AB	1374.88	Yes	2.5	09902R-AB	841.98	No
3.0	09903-AB	1588.04	Yes	3.0	09903R-AB	948.56	No
3.5	09904-AB	1801.20	No	3.5	09904R-AB	1055.15	No
4.0	09905-AB	2014.36	No	4.0	09905R-AB	1161.72	No
4.5	09914-AB	2120.95	No	4.5	09914R-AB	1268.31	No
5.0	09915-AB	2334.11	No	5.0	09915R-AB	1374.88	No
5.5	09916-AB	2440.68	No	5.5	09916R-AB	1481.47	No
6.0	09917-AB	2547.27	No	6.0	09917R-AB	1588.04	No
6.5	09918-AB	2653.84	No	6.5	09918R-AB	1694.63	No
7.0	09919-AB	2760.43	No	7.0	09919R-AB	1801.20	No

A Note on Handling the SPI Diamond Knife
A Note on Preparing Specimen Block
A Note on Recommended Maintenance and Storage

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