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 would make cleaning and sterilization 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.

See also

• Laser scalpel