Scalpel

A scalpel is a very sharp knife used for surgery as well as various arts and crafts.

Scalpels can have a fixed blade, or a disposable blade. The blades on scalpels are extremely sharp, merely touching a medical scalpel with bare hands to test it, will cut through the skin.

Graphical and model-making scalpels tend to have round handles, with a lot of grip. The blade is usually flat and straight, allowing it to be run easily against a straightedge to produce straight lines.

The handles of medical and dissection scalpels are flatter, more like a bread knife. They do not have the same level of grip as art scalpels, as this makes cleaning and sterilisation more difficult. The grip in medical scalpels is usually just a slight corrugation.

Medical scalpel blades are gradually curved for greater precision when cutting through tissue.

There are different ways of gripping and using a medical scalpel:

• Pencil grip
• Fingertip grip
• Palm grip

Ancient Egyptians used a sharp blade of a papyrus reed as an equivalent to a scalpel. Ayurveda mentions the use of sharp bamboo splinters.