Dear Steven Coakley,

Please explain how you "air dry my sections before
drying them".

Also, describe exactly what you do with the
kimwipe (assuming that a kimwipe is a small paper
hanky). 

If you're working with paraffin sections, it's
important to let all the water drain off the
slides (vertically) before letting the temperature
rise to anywhere near the softening point of the
wax. 
Histology waxes with 58C "melting points" soften
at about 45C. If you use a hotplate, it gets 
uncomfortably hot for an applied hand in 10-20
seconds at 45C. That's the maximum allowable
temperature before making a decision to melt the
wax. 

The film of water between the ribbon and the glass
must be all gone before you even think about
melting the wax. This advice is in every textbook
of histotechnology (microtechnique) published
since about 1880, and it has appeared often in
Histonet for ?10 years. 
The archives at http://histosearch.com  are full
of wisdom in this field. 

John Kiernan
Anatomy, UWO
London, Canada
____________________
Steven Coakley wrote:
> 
> I've noticed that when I air dry my sections before drying them some of them are turning a chauky white.  Might that indicate anything important.  I really have not noticed this before in other places I work.  I wipe off as much excess water with a kimwipe prior to letting the sections air dry vertically.  Any thoughts.
> 
>   Steve
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