stage forceps

[Graham Stabler]

Stage forceps were found on a great many early microscopes, excellent for holding all manor of small items, one end had a small spring loaded clamp and the other a piece of cork you could pin things to. See any of the old microscope books on Google books for information.

http://www.microscopy-uk.org.uk/mag/img ... stage1.jpg

However all I can find nowadays are gem clamps and the ones I bought were not very good and not fine enough to hold small specimens.

Is is possible to still buy these useful devices?

Graham

[g4lab]

I don't know of anyone manufacturing anything like that and I have followed the business for an embarassingly long time.

However if you look at the forcep end, and think to yourself, "what does that remind me of?" you may,, if you are old enough, think of the drafting tool, the inking pen.

These were a diabolical invention, which predated the Koh-I-Noor Rapidograph. They consist of two blades, that want to spring apart, held together by a very fine pitch screw, and knurled nut, with which the spacing, and hence line width, can be adjusted.

It would be a fairly simple matter, to turn an inking pen, into one of these stage forceps. The cork part, is done with Blu Tack ,or whatever color you prefer.

Unfortunately, old drafting sets are sought after by collectors, so these pens may not be as cheep (free) as they ought to be.

[lauriek]

There's always ebay for these old odd items which aren't made any more - this is the sort of thing ebay was made for!!

[Graham Stabler]

G4lab, yes they are similar but that is only the clamp, there is still the sliding and tilting action. These things seem so useful and were so common I just can't see why they vanished.

Ebay is an option but I was hoping for a modern and reliable source of a modern and reliable version.

Perhaps these days we are content pushing 3D objects around with tweezers on a cover slip.

Graham

[g4lab]

I have never seen a modern source of these.

They do appear on fleabay but they usually bring more than I want to pay.

Ditto the inking pens but I have a couple left over from my dad who did some work with them as an engineering student in the twenties and thirties that IMHO borders on miraculous. One smudge, one smear, one drip and you had to start over again. He made huge and complex drawings with this diabolical tool.

There are clones of the GIA gem clip now for less than thirty dollars. It is a nice variant. Bent stainless wire tips.

It looks like this but can be had for less. The tips are bent stainless steel so the tips have a little groove to hold the girdles of temstones. Its an exact knockoff of the the Gemological Institute sells with their microscopes. GIA price is $88.

This and this are the more standard ones. The good one can be found for about $28 but one didn't come up just now when I searched.

[g4lab]

Here is a Swiss made by Wild of Heerbrugg drafting set. The pictures don't have much magnification but there appear to be two inking pens in there and
the auction is sitting at its opening bid of $0.99

[puzzledpaul]

Also, atm, 3 of the 4 items shown as a result of 'Drafting pen' appear to be of the type required.

As they're also in the US - but individual items - P&P is less.

pp

[Graham Stabler]

they are similar but that is only the clamp, there is still the sliding and tilting action

The draughting pens also have the opposite spring direction if I remember my own correctly, you turn a screw to tighten against the spring where as on the stage forceps you press the pins to open against the spirng, that way the holding force is springy not based on the tightener. I also think they are significantly less stiff than the pens making the holding force light. You can get very nice spring loaded tweezers that will do a better job but again you are back to making your own assembly for tip/tilt/slide.

Graham