Tips for Model Railroad Tools: Scalpels vs. Hobby Knives
MRA EditorsDescription
You’re going to be making a lot of cuts when building a model railroad layout, and it’s important to know which model railroad tools ought to be used for which kinds of cuts. Hobby knives are great for doing a variety of inexact cuts and handywork on structures and landscapes, but they don’t always do the trick.
This is especially true for cases when you’re looking to make precise cuts along a straight edge or you need to cut through a large amount of material, and for those situations where a hobby knife just won’t cut it, you’ll more often than not want to opt for a scalpel. In this lesson, we teach you a bit about these handy model railroad tools and introduce you to some of the options you might have when buying your own scalpels.
Picking the right model railroad tools
Scalpels are a must-have for any dedicated model railroader. Hobby shops and hardware stores sell a range of scalpels in different sizes and shapes of blades that are geared toward specific tasks. These thin, sharp model railroad tools can be utilized in a number of situations when you’re building your layout, so NMRA Master Modeler Gerry Leone gives you a quick rundown of the pros and cons of scalpel use.
In his demonstration on model railroad tools, Gerry teaches you about a few of the jobs for which scalpels are ideal, from cleaning and scoring to making exact cuts. He also discusses some of the shapes you’ll see when you look for these model railroad tools in your local hardware store or hobby shop, and warns against certain types of cuts you shouldn’t try to make with a scalpel. With Gerry’s tips on using scalpels, you’ll be able to add a whole new dimension to your box of model railroad tools!
Hobby knives work great for making very exact precise cuts in wood or styrene, but when you really, really need an exact cut, what, like, for example, when you're cutting decals or you're cutting signs out and you want to really get close to that edge and get a nice clean cut, nothing beats a scalpel. Scalpels are available from a variety of sources. Micro-mark sells them. You can also get them at various other hobby stores. You can get them certainly at medical supply houses.
Scalpels come in a variety of shapes of blades and a variety of shapes of handles. As you can see here, I've got one that has basically what would be a number 11 hobby knife type of blade on it, but it's got a nice thick handle. So it's very, very easy to hold and to get very precise when you're using it along a straight edge or when you're just cutting free hand. You can also get a handle that's much thinner. This is the same type of blade that's on it, but it's a much thinner handle.
You can buy scalpels that are disposable. This one happens to have a plastic handle on it so that when the scalpel is dull, you can just toss it out. And you can see here that this blade is a curved blade. It's sort of a hook blade. It's great for getting kind of underneath something.
It'd be much like a carpet hook, would be a carpet blade would be. You can get scalpels with blades that are like this. This is a much more of a curved bottom blade. So it will rock very nicely if you're cutting along a straight edge. And finally there's blades that are paddle blades.
They come in a wide, wide, wide variety of different shapes for scalpel blades. And again, some of them are disposable, some of them are not. One of the most important things you need to remember when you're using a scalpel though is not to try to do a chop cut with it. In other words, to try to force it down into the material. And certainly don't use a scalpel blade to pry anything the way you may use a hobby knife.
Scalpel blades are very, very brittle and they are very likely to break and fly off in pieces all over. Getting a very precise cut, and it works again on wood, too, just as well as a hobby knife would, but getting a very, very precise cut the way to do it is with a scalpel. And that with a scalpel you can get as close as you possibly can to the edge of something and make a nice clean cut.
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