Review on AmScope BS-72P-100S-22: 72 Pre-Cleaned Blank Microscope Slides & 100 Square Coverslips 22x22mm by Mikey Jackson

slides are almost perfect. Clean. Separated by beautifully cut tissue paper. Preparation or pre-cleaning of the slide prior to use is largely unnecessary. The edges of the slides are well ground so that the glass edges are never sharp. Another thing is coverslips. The coverslips are packaged in a stack contained in a two-piece cubic plastic case of sufficient strength. You can repeatedly open and close the container; it is durable. Inside the container is a stack of coverslips wrapped in tissue paper. The shipping paper appears to protect the slides from chipping or breakage during shipping and handling. Now for the not so good news (and the reason for only 3 stars instead of 5): The way they are supposed to make coverslips, after being cut and stacked, individual coverslips tend to stick together. It's hard to try to separate them. liquid in between? Tapping on a hard surface at an angle? apply shear force to break them? Everything can be difficult. If you don't check each cover carefully, you can use two or three sets per slide, revealing a VERY THICK cover. Then using it with 100x oil immersion would be a disaster (or just a failure). If/when you manage to separate each cover sheet (and hopefully make sure it's just one sheet) then there is a mess/cleanliness issue. Almost 100% of the slides are dirty - you can tell. For the purposes here, 100% of the coverslips need to be erased. Cleaning with alcohol works partially. At some point in the manufacturing process, some type of film needs to be applied to the surface of the glass slide. It should be only partially soluble in 70% isopropyl alcohol. Regular Windex seems to apply much more efficiently and then the surfaces (both sides) are rubbed with liquid Windex which penetrates each slide. Then wipe/dry by hand. Yes - time consuming. But if you want/need a really clean cover plate for a good exposure result, clean these cover plates. Tolerances on slides are "normal", usually within the range stated on the packaging. We ran into a few that were too thick, out of spec, making 100x oil immersion impossible. Of the last 2,000 coverslips (and slides) purchased, we have had very few breakages - less than 0.5%. . We will continue to buy these slides although cleaning coverslips is time consuming and good. The manufacturer would have a great product if they could fix the coverslip contamination (slime, dirt, emulsion, oil, etc.) onto the coverslip. Good technological developments, industrial engineering and quality control will probably help to achieve this quite easily. I hope this helps other users and buyers.