Is there a holder for safely carrying a scalpel blade or two that also forms a handle or grip. I am thinking minimal and small.

I suppose at the absolute minimum a holder to hold & protect a blade or two would suffice. Most tasks for a scalpel blade, in an emergency situation, I presume, would not require a lot of force so holding the blade without a handle would not be too difficult.

I did a bit of searching in this forum and on the internet and did not find anything. My apologies if this has been discussed and I missed it.

I’m not aware of one right away; the closest to it that came to my mind is this: https://darksucks.com/collections/gear-gifts/products/epsilon-eko . I don’t own one of these but I have other products from this maker and all of them are top notch. No affiliation.

If you don’t mind my asking, what’s your use case? Other than medical use, my opinion has been that a small knife blade is better than a scalpel blade, for me at least.

Thanks for that info.

My intended use is when a very sharp knife is needed. Probably medical though that is a very rare need.

A few scalpel blades take so little space I am exploring how to safely carry and use them.

Not a super high priority but if small enough I will try to incorporate into some of my activity packs.

There's this item for a keychain, if you want really small:

Spyderco Bug

Back in the beginning of my career, we used kelly clamps or hemostats to hold a scalpel blade or single edge razor blades when we didn't have access to a blade holder. A set of clamps and a bandage scissors were basic edc for staff nurse types, and covered most of the daily tool needs. Labor costs dictate that most er suture sets are disposable pakistani stainless rather than expensive german instruments. Cheap, functional forceps are now available in drug stores and anglers supply shops.

Or an exacto knife handle would work: sterilize with rubbing alcohol, another blast from the past.

There are folding scalpel handles, if that would help.

not exactly a scalpel blade, but pretty darn sharp, I got one of these for Christmas.... about 1 1/4"x 2 3/4" when folded... there are other vendors

https://www.northerntool.com/shop/tools/...mp;gclsrc=aw.ds

You might want to check — Folding Titanium Craft Scalpel Knife — sold out now but the page is still up so CC probably expect more.

The folding scalpel handles might be useful. I was hoping for even smaller. Might be unrealistic though.

Having used scalpels back in college and grad school biology classes I struggle to imagine a survival or first aid reason to use one. They are so fragile and quick to dull. In an urgent need to cut flesh I have no doubt that my smaller, less commonly used knife blades would do the trick. My Swiss Army Knife blades are amazingly sharp, probably because I'm mostly using my Ritter knives for knife work.

If your budget extends to USA made...

https://www.instagram.com/tacticalkeychains/

His TUKK Jr takes a craft blade, but kind have to follow him on Instagram to get notified when he has a bunch made & ready to sell.

Edit: Ah just read 2nd post, a TUKK isn't something you'd put in a kit.

Hi,
I think its called a pen knife or keychain knife?
Unless you're looking for a box cutter

Thanks for all the great input. I did not imagine that there are small folding scalpel handles available.

Keeping one blade extra sharp from my EDC knives might be doable. Evaluating that now.

2 ideas

Exacto blades might work well. 5 packs of blades are 10$

Another way to go would be Outdoor Edge Razor Blade knife. looks similar-

3rd company- Civilware- has one too

CountyComm has simple single sided razor knives.

https://countycomm.com/collections/cutting/products/pocket-straight-razor-survival-tool

Edit: doh missed the pic above

If you are still looking... I saw this this morning, they are back in stock now.

Knife/Scalpel

Paul -

You beat me to it. I just received the CC email and was just going to post that. It’s a small blade that’s nice to have tucked away in case you need to make fine cuts. It’s not a daily user.

Thanks. I did see that notice. I just might place an order.

You might look at exacto knives with retractable snap-off blades. With it you have about a 'dozen blades' in one.

Klarus S1 TI-SCAL Titanium 1.75" Scalpel Blade Folding Knife Pocket Folder

I don’t know how to post images, but if you plug this into ebay, it’s the smallest razor I’ve ever seen.

Thanks for that — totally different scalpel blade than the Ti folder CC markets — much finer tip.
Klarus S1 Folding Titanium Scalpel

I would repeat KenK's question. In what circumstance would a scalpel blade be useful? I cannot recount an emergency first aide situation, back country or front, where something like this was used or desired...Splitting hairs???

In an emergency situation you use the blade that’s available. I can envision a situation where a small blade with a very narrow tip would be nice to have — critical, no, just nice. I have lots of blade in varying sizes, but none with that fine a tip.

I’ve used small blades to remove splinters, including some that would have stopped our hike completely without removal, in the field. I’ve also had my doctor use a scalpel to help dig glass shards out of my foot, which is an experience I’d prefer to not repeat.

With that said, I’ve never carried a scalpel in the field and I’ve done well with the blades I’ve had on hand.

I was just curious. i have used small blades to cut away clothing (EMT shears are actually better) and I have removed splinters, scraping with a blade, all in first aid situations. Never seen a scalpel recommended in a FAK. I would leave those in the capable hands of physicians.

Come to think of it, i have been on accident scenes attended by docs, and they weren't using scalpels in the field, either.

If I need a knife on my next accident scene, the next time it will probably be the blade on my Skeletool CX which will do the scraping, slicing,or cutting.

I don't think we can end this small cutting tool thread without mentioning the SAK Classic, about as versatile, ounce for ounce, a cutting as there is.

Even a devoted Leatherman fan as I am, I carry a Classic on my key ring and use it often.I will admit it might be overwhelmed if I were tasked with skinning out an elephant.

The best first aid use for scalpel blades is cut little x's over the wound to suck the poison out. We started using this technique for snake bites, but then we discovered it works for everything: gunshot wounds, heart attacks, appendicitis, thyroid cancer...just about everything...but not hemorrhoids. Don't ever try this with hemorrhoids.
Just sayin'.

I presented to a country doctor years ago with impacted hemorrhoids and he proned me out on his exam table and got right to work. I doubt that it was an oral exam. Whatever, it worked splendidly.

Have heard of scalpels in sterile first aid kits, along with set of hypodermic needles, and IV cannula but they are for going to 3rd world type of places.

Meant to hand over to local doctor to use on you, so can guarantee they are sterile.

The primary task I was thinking about for a scalpel blade was removing splinters. Over the years I have had plenty of splinters that were long and deep and required cutting skin to remove them.

I have used pocket knife blades. Sometimes they were sufficiently sharp, sometimes not. Due to the shape & size the incision is larger than needed to remove the splinter. A sharp #11 scalpel blade is an efficient, effective splinter remover. It can make a deep but narrow incision to remove a long splinter, imposing minimum damage to surrounding skin. And a cut from a very sharp knife seems to heal quicker.

A new sharp utility knife blade can do a pretty good splinter extraction.

A needle can be useful but leaves a ragged wound.

Emergency trail-side appendectomies will be relegated to more skilled professionals than me.

My thought is to carry the scalpel blade in my hiking kit but also in my car FAK.

The SAK Classic is a good idea that I have considered. Not expensive. The blade could be re-profiled to a pointier point. And sharpen extra sharp. I wish the Classic had two sharp blades instead of one and a nail file.

Lots of good discussion here.

I have wondered if the moderately useless nail file could be re-profiled into a second blade. Has anyone tried this? Is the nail file the same steel as the blade?

Here's a video of Laura Kampf (sponsored by Leatherman) repurposing an existing tool to take replaceable craft blades.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eQU3uHWtpCg

Nice share Ren!

Take a look at the Swiss MiniChamp. It uses the same scales as the Classic with several more layers.

I have a Havalon Piranta which is a folder that uses 60XT scalpel blades. Crazy sharp and the blades are pretty cheap to replace.
Just be very careful when changing out the blades. I usually use a pair of pliers.