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Scalpel blades are usually made of hardened and tempered steel, stainless steel, or high carbon steel; in addition, titanium, ceramic, diamond and even obsidian knives are not uncommon. For example, when performing surgery under MRI guidance, steel blades are unusable (the blades would be drawn to the magnets and would also cause image artifacts ).
Obsidian scalpels may be purchased for surgical use on research animals. [ 65 ] The major disadvantage of obsidian blades is their brittleness compared to those made of metal, [ 66 ] thus limiting the surgical applications for obsidian blades to a variety of specialized uses where this is not a concern.
420 series contains several types with various carbon content between 0.15% and 0.40% this steel grade is widely used to make high-end razor blades, surgical scalpels, etc. It obtains about 57 HRC after suitable heat treatment. 420HC (420C) is a higher carbon content 420 stainless steel.
Additionally, The entire blade is highly susceptible to being accidentally broken. One such use of obsidian is to make extremely sharp surgical scalpels. [3] Ceramic knives hold their edge for a long time, but are brittle.
Despite being sharper, prismatic obsidian is also considerably more brittle than steel; obsidian blades of the type used on the macuahuitl tended to shatter on impact with other obsidian blades, steel swords or plate armour. Obsidian blades also have difficulty penetrating European mail. The thin, replaceable blades used on the macuahuitl were ...
Sharpened metal drop-point blade Naturally occurring sharp obsidian piece Shark tooth with a sharp, serrated edge A sewing needle comes to a sharp point. Sharpness refers to the ability of a blade, point, or cutting implement to cut through materials with minimal force, and can more specifically be defined as the capacity of a surface to initiate the cut. [1]
Surgical knives made from obsidian are still used in some delicate surgeries, [33] as they cause less damage to tissues than surgical knives and the resulting wounds heal more quickly. In 1975, American archaeologist Don Crabtree manufactured obsidian scalpels which were used for surgery on his own body.
The technology to make scalpel blades out of smoky obsidian, a volcanic glass that allows for the sharpest blade production, was first developed by Don Crabtree in the late 1970s. The blades, which have edges only a few molecules thick, are 100 to 500 times sharper than the traditional surgical steel scalpels. [7]