Crafting a Scalpel Handle

Remember when my father found that wonderful biology kit I restored in this old post? Well, he found a pretty interesting missing piece! Apparently, together with a frog in formalin, it came with this vivisection kit:

But, oh no! It’s missing the most important piece The scalpel!

First Version

Even though at first I thought of crafting the whole handle with brass, I then realized that I could ease my life a bit by using instead a piece of very hard and compact wood I had around (its parquet scrap from 30 years before as a matter of fact, always recycle).

So, I grabbed a scalpel blade, took some measures, and drew a nice but simple shape that would fit with the style of the other tools.

After sawing the shape and quite some refining of the fitting at the tip to make it hold the blade just right, I think it came out pretty fancy:

However, even though the blade was kept in place firmly and the wood was, in fact, very sturdy, I think it was still too weak and would break very soon if I applied any force on a cut.

Second Version

To put remedy to the weakness of the tip, I reached a compromise between wood and brass: I cut away the tip, engraved a slot, and remade the piece with a thick piece of brass.

Lastly, I used some oil to polish the wood to give it a bit of life and… Look at how nice it turned out!