IВ’ve learned some really interesting things about obsidian (or any kind of glass) as a cutting edge: However, I have seen photos of Don Crabtree, a famous flint knapper from Idaho, after he had a lung removed using an obsidian scalpel, and the long scars on his chest were amazingly small and minimal-just thin hairline red lines (compare that with scar tissue from a patient that has undergone open heart surgery with a steel scalpel, where the scar tissue is a prominent bulging line).

Secondly, I wanted to see if the incisions would heal differently and leave different kinds of scars, but unfortunately, the doctor didn't sew the wounds tightly closed, so both scars ended up looking the same. For one thing, I opted not to be injected with pain anesthetic, because I wanted to see if the blades felt different, and I found unequivocally that the answer is noВ…they both sliced though my arm with an equal level of searing pain. I wanted to observe the differences between the blades. When I had to have minor surgery performed on my arm, I had the doctor make one incision using one of ErrettВ’s obsidian scalpels and another incision with a steel scalpel.

I took several flint knapping courses with Errett Callahan, who is considered one of the best flint knappers in the world (he's won many awards, mostly in the 1990's, see his work at: Д®rrett also used to make some very high quality obsidian (volcanic glass) scalpels. I've been an amateur flint knapper for years, making arrowheads mostly.

Crabtree obsidian scalpel