obsidian and other non-steel knives

[nephildevil]

they can look great
http://www.obsidianarts.com/page2E.html
has anybody here got some of these kind?

maybe even used it? seems very very brittle to me, but just like ordinary glass very sharp


modern use has that sometimes scaples are made from obsidian, as they dont interfere with the x-rays, like metals do

 

[znode]

Obsidian fractures conchoidally, and when done right forms extremely sharp several-molecule-wide edges at intervals. This is a sharpness no metal can match, but it is very brittle. I have not used hand-knapped knives, but I would imagine it would work similar to a pretty brittle serrated edge.

AG Russell has some nice ones on his catalog as well.

I don't know what you mean by the x-ray interference though. X-rays are not used during a surgery because of accumulated radiation to the surgeon. Do you mean MRI in surgeries? In those cases non-steel blades are used because of the strong magnetic forces involved.

 

[nephildevil]

yeah might have been MRI instead, just got it from the scalpel page from wikkipedia

 

[dipbait]

I have a box of flint indian artifacts.

 

[hardheart]

I have a couple by Scott van Arsdale

 

[Larrin]

The fractures themselves are very sharp, but the obsidian knives themselves aren't.

 

[mytowrig]

i read a while back that obsidian scalpels were sometimes used simply because they made a cleaner cut. cleaner cut = faster/better healing and less scarring