Surgical needles are fabricated by masking and etching a plurality of the needle blanks from one side of a base material, such as a metal sheet, after applying an etchant resistant adhesive backing to the other side and then etching the one side of the sheet as a chemical milling process. The resultant needles are unattached to each other or to the sheet and individually removable from the backing. This increases the speed of manufacturing while maintaining the ease of use.