Herbert wrote: > >> ... carbon steel ... stainless steel ... > >Thanks for all the replies about fine wood cutting tools. > >However, there's still something I don't understand. > >Scalpel blades (that I've seen) appear made from stainless steel. >Why wouldn't a surgeon prefer a sharper blade made from carbon >steel? I ask on the assumption that such a blade would not dull >appreciably during a 1-3 hour operation, and its extra cost would >be neglible compared to the total cost of the operation.
My guess would be that stainless steel is less pourous than high carbon and thus easier to sterilize and I think you can get a thinner, harder blade out of stainless than high carbon, which is what you want for cutting into people. Also I think they do through out scalpel blades rather than resharpen them. Of course if I ever go in for surgery and see my doctor honing a scalpel on a barber's leather strop I'm outta there. :) Regards, Craig ___________________________________________________________ $0 Web Hosting with up to 200MB web space, 1000 MB Transfer 10 Personalized POP and Web E-mail Accounts, and much more. Signup at www.doteasy.com To get on or off this list see list information at http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
