Australia's Science Forum

Ok peeps ... what does everyone else do dissection wise with scalpels ... I have the stainless handles with the blades you can replace - only thing is blades rust etc and you cant get more than two uses out of them ...

Any sharp ideas!! yes the pun was intended!!!!

Get a scaple blade remover from westlab and then put in sharps container. The last labbie here tried to reuse them, but the blades would rust on. Now its one time use only and blades are removed directly after use by me.

One time use here too. They are not very expensive and the risk of cutting yourself on them is greater than the cost of purchasing new ones.

We would wash the whole thing in dishwasher, if they came out clean, fold in al foil and store, helps stop them go rusty.

2 uses only
We had the same blades on ours for the first 2 years I was here , god only knows how old they were then .

Then I got entrusted with the key to the "special" cupboard where I found over 1000 brand new blades .....guess what I did .

Incidentally , ol' mate I work with had been taking them off after each use and storing them in a small bottle of oil ....certainly kept the rust at bay ....even if they couldn't cut anything anymore

I sometimes get a couple of uses out of blades, especially if they've only been used for a small "clean" job. Once I've washed them, I spray them with my 75% ethanol spray and leave them to air dry. Stops the rust in its tracks!
Once they're finished with, I use my handy dandy blade remover to take them off and throw it in the bin once it is full.

Yes I love my handy blade remover - best WHS thing you could use - compared to how I was shown!!!!!!!!!!!!!

During the Christmas holidays everything gets moved around by the cleaners. I know where my handy blade remover was last year... Can't find it now and I'm pretty peeved about it as I had to beg my HOD to get one.

These blade removers sound cool . Shame yours went missing Samantham.
I use a pair of pliers . just grab the blade as shown and you can twist it out of the lock and slide it out to remove it safely .

westlab sells them. highly recommend it as it takes all the danger away and no possibility of cutting yourself.

Officemax has it for $9.50 - you can not put a price on your safety ...

They hold so many, well worth the $$$!!!

I open the box when almost full, empty it into the sharps container and reuse.

I clean and spray lightly with WD40. It makes them last longer. I store them in a tray with some paper towel at the bottom to soak up excess oil. I do the pliers removal trick too.

Quick question everyone,

Just had a new teacher wanting to use scalpels with Yr8 flower disection and I gave them to her. Out of 7 scalpels 4 returned broken. In the past I have limited to year 9+. Not sure what everyone else is finding, we have yr7 kids who can't light a match or use scissors, it's all a bit scary.

Anyway whinge over, What does everyone else do? What are your guidlines?

We let Year 8 use scalpels and rarely have anyone cut themselves, no worse than any of the other year groups. I do have broken blades returned to me. I'd like to think that they don't make scalpel blades like they used to but I suspect it's the little cherubs stabbing the blade into the chopping board. It only seems to happen with the more feral classes. Never a problem with the better classes. Interesting...

Every year we have students who can't light matches but unless you grow up in a family that camps, these days few people use matches around the home. Kids are also brought up to think that matches are dangerous. So they get to Year 7 and they are confronted with matches and these evil looking bunsens! It's all a bit overwhelming. Thankfully, I have not heard of any Year 7 students not being able to use scissors (which would make me wonder what they were doing in their primary years)

We use scalpels with all year groups (7-12) depending on the class behaviour of course.
As a substitute we also use the single sided blades you can buy at Bunnings. This gives them a side to hold on to and the blade is still sharp but less fragile than a scalpel blade.

melsid wrote: ↑19 Mar 2021, 08:12 We use scalpels with all year groups (7-12) depending on the class behaviour of course.
As a substitute we also use the single sided blades you can buy at Bunnings. This gives them a side to hold on to and the blade is still sharp but less fragile than a scalpel blade.

Funny you mention that. My son doing Biology at uni was told to only buy the single sided razor blades for dissections, not scalpels. He also told me he overheard a lecturer describing the first year students to other lecturers as "so cute" when one of the students got lost. Bit like how we treat Year 7s here. I guess whatever the system there are young "innocents" in their first year.

We are are also a one time use here