Originally Posted By: hikermor
... The real question is the type of steel used in the conventional scalpels - 420HC? D2? 154CM?...

Sandvik 13c26 among others. IIRC D2 wouldn’t work, carbides are too large/coarse.

As I recall one of the primary attributes of surgical steel is its resistance to corrosion. Blood is very corrosive and repeated sterilization through an autoclave is required. I don’t know anything about that but the buzzwords; apparently an autoclave uses super-heated steam.