Post-Civil War, post-1880 surgical instrument identification

By Dr. Michael Echols, American Civil War Surgical Antiques

If an amputation knife or bone saw has a metal handle, you can be 99.9% sure it is not Civil War era!  It is most likely post-1880.  If it's chrome plated or flaking plating...it's post-1880's for sure.

  (Above is the exception: two instruments with all-metal handles.  A scalpel and tenaculeum with all-metal unplated steel handles found in certain kinds of post-mortem or dissection kits prior to 1870) 

I constantly see surgical sets and too many instruments with all-metal handles listed as 'Civil War' on eBay, at antique shows, and auctions.  This applies to both wood cased sets and leather pocket surgical kits.  If it is chrome plated (or flaking metal)...it is post-1880 unless you know for sure it is silver plated, as seen on some metal catheters.

If the amputation knife, large bone saw, and 99.9% of all the other surgical knife handles in a set are made of all-metal, then it is absolutely not from the Civil War era or before.  The reason for all metal handles was to comply with the needs of sterilization, which started for the most part in 1870 in the U.S.A.  Non-metal handles (ivory, ebonized wood, gutta percha, bone, horne) would not stand up to repeated sterilization due to the harsh chemicals or high heat used for sterilization.  Non-metal handles completely disappeared after about 1890 due to lack of demand by surgeons and the rigors of sterilization.

Below are two photos with instrument examples of NON-METAL handles made of ebony, ebonized wood, horne, gutta percha, or ivory.   You have to weigh the individual instruments in context of all the other factors used to date a given set. These types of instruments below with gutta percha, ebony, or ivory handles would be PRE-1870:

Below this point are examples of ALL-METAL handled instruments, which are not and could not have been made or used during or before the Civil War.  They are POST-1870!

Above: Typical post-1880 all metal-handled cased surgery set

Above: Typical post-1880 all metal amputation saw with loop metal handle (There were NO saws like this made during or before the Civil War!  NONE!)

Above: Typical post-1880 leather pocket surgical kit with all metal handled scalpels (Note the cork inserts under the blades of the scalpels...typically post 1880.)

Above: A post-1880 wood cased surgical set with all metal saw handles, all metal scalpels, and all metal amputation knives.  Note: The presence of a velvet lined all-wood case with brass fittings is highly atypical at this late date.  You would expect no velvet and chrome plated fittings on the case this late, but makers created a sterilization set using an earlier era case for 'looks'.

Other signs to watch for in POST-1880 instruments is the presence of ratchet locking handles on forceps like these examples:

The above type of locking mechanisms are POST-1880 and should never be found in a wood cased surgical set or pre-1880 leather pocket surgical kit.  There is one type of mini- (single catch) locking device seen prior to 1880, but the multi-level (multiple catches) locking ratchet type shown above is not one.  If you see locking ratcheted forceps...unless you know something uniquely specific, think post-1880.

Dr. Michael Echols is a long-term collector/researcher of surgical instruments and is not a dealer.  For additional information, please search for the web site:

American Civil War Surgical Antiques

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