Hey Gayle,
I can't press hard-these old tendons and joints need to save their efforts
for the embedding and cutting and immuno squeeze bottles, so I'll keep
using Securlines, squeaking away S99- ...... Nothing like the squeak of a
new Securline,eh after you've been struggling with a dry one for ten
blocks. Someone should invent a refillable cassette pen and ink. 
I've been following the thread about histologists compounding their own
solutions and I wax nostalgic. Back in 1970, as a 17 year old high school
volunteer at Nassau County Med Center, the first "scut work" I was given
(thanks Dick Shroeder, another great teacher) was making five gallon
carboys of phosphate buffered formalin, decal (10% HCl with an indicator in
it (Phenol Red?)  Harris' hematoxylin (always the drama/ danger of the
giant boiling Ehrlenmyer flask boiling over when I added the mercuric
oxide), Schiff's, eosin, and all specials (even that Movat stain).  I find
it lots of fun to compound stains and solutions and thankfully I work in a
place where there's still time to do it. You can save so much money.  I
make my weekly eosin in 1min, 1 liter of decal in 30 seconds, a gallon of
acid alcohol in 1 minute. We buy formalin though, won't deal with that.
Hematoxylin (Gill 3, the best- thanks Gary!) and Schiff and Ea50 and OG--6
are purchased too, just about everything else I make and I teach my new
trainees to make immediately. Its either use those dusty bottles of dry
chemicals in stock or pay to have em hauled away, along with all of those
bottles of cheap and easy solutions.

Joe Nocito- I recommend skin as a CD34 control, that way you'll control for
the normal reactivity both in vessel endothelium and in the dendritic
interstitial and adventitial fibroblasts in the dermis. Make sure you use
normal skin, if you take a keloidal scar, all of those CD34+ dendritic
fibroblasts will have become CD34 negative myofibroblasts ( 'scuse me, my
research passion). 
Happy Memorial Day to all. 
Jeff Silverman
----------
> From: Gayle Callis <uvsgc@msu.oscs.montana.edu>
> To: histonet@Pathology.swmed.edu
> Subject: pens
> Date: Tuesday, May 25, 1999 11:46 AM
> 
> Secureline are the choice here also, even though they have a short
> life.  One thing to be aware of, the RED secureline pen markings on a
>  cassette will be totally lost during processing, had a whole research
> project go into the garbage because of this and my language habits 
> went totally downhill, with closed doors!  USE THE BLACK pens.  The red
> pens followed the ruined cassettes/tissues into trash can!
> 
> Or we use soft leaded pencils, Tissue Tek had some that worked, but 
> a #2 pencil will work, press hard! 
> 
> Gayle Callis
> 
>