Sample preparation.

<p>(<b>a</b>) The femoral neck cut from the femoral head using a water-cooled bandsaw. (<b>b</b>) Femoral neck after sectioning with the bandsaw, displaying the thicker cortical bone on the medial, calcar area of the femoral neck. (<b>c</b>) Custom-made clamp (sample grip) with the four screws gripping the cortical bone section, positioned for the 3 mm-apart parallel cuts. The sample was orientated so that the wafering blade cut the bone perpendicular to the arrow marked on the bone. Arrow corresponds to the direction of the osteons. (<b>d</b>) 6x3x3 mm rectangular parallelepiped cortical bone sample from the medial femoral neck cortex. The 6mm length surface is parallel to the direction of the osteons (marked with blue arrow).