The Chirurgeon’s Box: The Falciform Amputation Knife

Many keen observers have noted the curved knife pictured at the top of this website and have enquired about this oddly shaped tool. This, dear reader, is a falciform amputation knife. It was the popular tool of choice by 18th-century surgeons who preferred to cut through the skin and muscle before amputating the bone. To do […]

The Chirurgeon’s Box: The Clockwork Saw

Although the clockwork saw dates from the 19th century, I couldn’t resist including a blurb about it here as it seems to me the very thing from which horror movies are made. The English surgeon, WHB Winchester (1816-1901), designed an amputation saw which worked using a self-winding mechanism. Unfortunately, the saw was difficult to control […]