needle blanks do not require a tree or carrier strip connecting the needle blanks the needle blanks are fabricated by chemically etching away unwanted material from the top side of the sheet while attaching an etch resistant adhesive backing to the bottom side a second etching is then performed to remove any remaining unwanted material as a chemical milling step because of their symmetry needle blanks of similar types are fabricated next to each other in order to maximize the number of needle blanks fabricated on any one sheet therefore as shown in fig1 slightly curved needle blanks 20 can be fabricated on the same sheet as highly curved needle blanks 40 and straight needle blanks 30 these needle blanks may vary in size as well as in shape fig2 shows the overall flow of the various steps making up a preferred embodiment of the present disclosure each step is shown in parentheses in the following example and further shown in each of the subsequent figures initially a metal sheet preferably sandvik 1rk91 or carpenter 455 stainless steel as disclosed in u s pat no 5 411 613 is coated with a photoresist material 100 such as 34 kmer 34 or 34 riston 34 available from dupont the photoresist material is of a type which when exposed to light and subsequently developed becomes hard and resistant to an etching solution but unless exposed to light can be readily removed by washing this coating step is done either in darkness or in a safe light condition e g yellow or orange light typically by dipping the metal sheet into the photoresist but can.