Perhaps not all members know what a scalpel is.
"Nothing could exceed Mr Dorrit's indignation, as he turned at the
foot of the staircase on hearing these apologies. He felt that the
family dignity was struck at by an assassin's hand. He had a sense
of his dignity, which was of the most exquisite nature. He could
detect a design upon it when nobody else had any perception of the
fact. His life was made an agony by the number of fine scalpels
that he felt to be incessantly engaged in dissecting his dignity."

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Definition: \Scal"pel\ (sk[a^]l"p[e^]l), n. [L. scalpellum, dim. of
scalprum a knife, akin to scalpere to cut, carve, scrape: cf.
F. scalpel.] (Surg.)
A small knife with a thin, keen blade, -- used by surgeons,
and in dissecting.

I would think all of us here would know what a scalpel is, but I don't think we understand exactly how very, very sharp a scalpel is. I saw a thriller last night in which a nurse threatened to castrate a killer by using her expertly placed scalpel just above his little wonker--and she said she could castrate him so quickly that he would barely know when she had sliced him. In other words, no sawing.