Information
Workshop
Two benches, two saws and a lapping wheel in an old cutlery works on Kelham Island. We make thin sections for universities, museums, quarries, collectors and anyone who has picked up a rock and wondered what it is made of.
It is a fitting city for it. In the 1850s Henry Clifton Sorby, working in Sheffield, showed that rocks ground thin enough could be read under a polarising microscope, a method geologists still use every day. Everything on this site is drawn live by a model of that microscope: real rocks, real optics, a fictional workshop.
Services
| Section | Detail | Price |
|---|---|---|
| Standard, covered | 27 × 46 mm, 30 µm, glass cover slip | £28 |
| Polished | 27 × 46 mm, uncovered, 1 µm diamond finish for microprobe & SEM | £42 |
| Large format | 50 × 75 mm, covered or polished | £55 |
| Blue-resin impregnation | For porous or friable rock; pores show blue in plane light | +£12 |
| Oil-cut | For evaporites and swelling clays that water would ruin | +£15 |
| Meteorites & rare material | Minimum-loss cutting, every offcut returned | quote |
Prices per section, VAT included. Turnaround about ten working days; ask if it is urgent.
Send a rock
- 01A piece at least the size of a matchbox. Mark the side or direction you want cut, if it matters.
- 02Wrap it, label it with your name and a sample number, and tell us what you want below.
- 03Post it to the workshop. We write when it arrives, and again when the slides are ready.
Where
Unit 4, Cotton Mill Walk
Kelham Island, Sheffield
Sheffield --:--:--