Development of the STMfish®

The designer of the STMfish® started out using a traditional fish shaped buffalo horn Gua Sha instrument. He found that the hand made edges of the tool were inconsistent and had poorly finished edges. He modified the instrument by reshaping the edges to a more controlled and regular radius with a highly polished finish. The modified instrument worked well, producing excellent release of underlying fascial adhesions and scar tissue with reduced trauma to the skin surface. Unfortunately the beloved tool came to an abrupt end when a patient sat on it and snapped it in half.

The designer then set about making more durable and versatile prototypes from 6mm aluminium plate. Some poorly finished instruments produce excessive superficial ”petechia” on the skin. This "sha" is percieved by traditional Chinese medicine and some Western techniques of treatment as desirable. The designer of the STMfish® felt that it would be possible to achieve the same deep tissue effects with less skin scraping trauma by careful design of the edge profile.

After many variations in shape and edge profile, he arrived at the current design which when applied correctly achieves excellent outcomes with minimal superficial trauma. The designer also experimented using a layer of fabric between the instrument and the skin as an alternative to a lubricant. A square of satin or fine weave cotton allows the transmission of the therapeutic “tissue wave” with even less superficial skin abrasion. This is particularly useful on hairy areas of skin.

To test the design, he lent his final prototype to several practitioners. Everyone who tried it wanted one. These instruments are very time consuming to make by hand, each one taking up to 8 hours to fashion and polish. As this is cost prohibitive the designer investigated many options for manufacture in various materials.

The current choice of diecast aluminium offers good characteristics of cost, weight, sensitivity and durability. The net result is an instrument that fits the practitioners hand naturally. It has convex and concave shapes to suit most body areas and exhibits excellent “feedback” from the treated tissues. Importantly the cost is profoundly less than most other Western alternatives.

The designer is currently developing a stainless steel version produced by computer assisted machining which although more expensive offers the ultimate in accuracy and durability.