Fig. 1

Hand sectioning of a grass internode with a single-edge razor blade. A Cut the stem segment to length to match the size of the sectioner’s hand as shown. Stem segment is shown being sectioned by a right-handed person. B The stem is held between the thumb and forefinger and pressed into the palm gently to further stabilize in the left hand. C Fingers are wrapped around the stem. D Yellow arrows represent static pressure applied by fingers to hold the blade firmly in place. E and F The blade is held in the dominant hand while the plant stem is in the nondominant hand. The blade is moved forward by the movement of the dominant-hand’s forefinger tip, which is slightly bent to rotate the blade slightly as the wrist flexes (Blue arrows). G and H The flat surface of the blade in the dominant hand is gently pressed downward against the forefinger of the nondominant hand. The blade advances to take sections and then retreats with the movement of the nondominant-hand forefinger and dominant hand wrist. Once started, this motion should be repeated without separating the hands for several sections. E and F Blue arrow represents blade movement. Black bars (E–J) represent the orientation of the finger or blade before and after pivoting. G–I White arrows represent finger movements. J Green arrow represents stem movement upwards by the subtle flexing of the nondominant thumb backwards. Alternatively, the thumb and forefinger can gently slide downward towards the palm to expose more stem for sectioning. K A crushed or collapsed stem can be separated to isolate a single shard and section starting with the short edge shown in L. This is a very slow and gentle movement to prevent cutting a finger