Nail clipper

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Tool for trimming toe nails or finger nails

title: "Nail clipper" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["mechanical-hand-tools", "nail-care", "cutting-tools", "domestic-implements", "toiletry", "medical-equipment", "19th-century-inventions"] description: "Tool for trimming toe nails or finger nails" topic_path: "general/mechanical-hand-tools" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nail_clipper" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0

::summary Tool for trimming toe nails or finger nails ::

::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/4d/Nail-clippers-variety.jpg" caption="A variety of nail clippers; the clipper on the left is in the [[plier]] style; the centre and right clippers are in the [[compound lever]] style"] ::

A nail clipper (also called nail clippers, a nail trimmer, a nail cutter or nipper type) is a hand tool used to trim nails and hangnails.

Design

| Image = Nail clipper compound lever.svg | bSize = 200 | cWidth = 200 | cHeight = 110 | oLeft = 0 | oTop = 23 | Location = right | Description = Levers of a compound-lever clipper; purple triangles denote the fulcra Nail clippers are usually made of stainless steel but can also be made of plastic and aluminum. Two common varieties are the pliers type and the compound lever type. Many nail clippers come with a miniature file affixed to them, for manicuring (smoothing) the rough edges of nails, and some come with a nail catcher.

The head of a nail clipper may be either concave or convex. Nail clippers with convex clipping ends are intended for trimming toenails, while concave clipping ends are for fingernails. The cutting head may be manufactured to be parallel or perpendicular to the principal axis of the cutter. Cutting heads that are parallel to the principal axis are made to address accessibility issues involved with cutting toenails.

History

::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/9d/Magdalenenberg_cut_and_shave.jpg" caption="Razor (top) and nail cutter with bone handle (bottom) found in a grave of the [[Hallstatt culture]] ({{Circa}} 6th–8th centuries BC)"] ::

::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/ba/Roman_nailclipper.jpg" caption="Roman nail clipper made of bronze, 3rd to 4th century AD"] ::

::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/be/H._C.Cook_Company-_nail_trimmer,_1902.png" caption="1902 advertisement from ''Good Housekeeping'' for Carter's nail cutter, produced by the [[H. C. Cook Company]] of Ansonia, Connecticut"] ::

Before the invention of the modern nail clipper, people would use small knives to trim or pare their nails. Descriptions of nail trimming in literature date as far back as the 8th century BC. The Book of Deuteronomy exhorts in 21:12 that a man, should he wish to take a captive as a wife, "shall bring her home to [his] house, and she shall shave her head and trim her nails". A reference is made in Horace's Epistles, written circa 20 BC, to "A close-shaven man, it's said, in an empty barber's booth, penknife in hand, quietly cleaning his nails."

The first United States patent for an improvement in fingernail clippers (then dubbed "finger-nail trimmers") was filed in 1875 by Valentine Fogerty.{{Cite patent | country = US | number = 161112 | title = Improvement in finger-nail trimmers | gdate = February 24, 1875 | invent1 = Fogerty, Valentine | country= US | number = 183256 | title = Improvement in finger-nail trimmers | gdate = October 17, 1876 | invent1 = Edge, William C. | country= US | number = 205088 | title = Improvement in finger-nail trimmers | gdate = April 17, 1878 | invent1 = Hollman, John H. | country= US | number = 244891 | title = Finger-nail trimmer | gdate = July 26, 1881 | invent1 = Heim, Eugene | invent2 = Matz, Celestin | country= US | number = 342780 | title = Finger-nail cutter | gdate = August 24, 1885 | invent1 = Coates, George H. | title = Deacon Selden Carter dies | newspaper = The Day | date = May 25, 1916 | url = https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=g_0gAAAAIBAJ&sjid=r3UFAAAAIBAJ&pg=2485,3009292&dq=chapel+carter&hl=en}} and another by Chapel S. Carter and Hedley P. Carter in 1922.{{Cite patent | country= US | number = 1436010 | title = Finger-nail trimmer | gdate = November 21, 1922 | invent1 = Carter, Chapel S. | invent2 = Carter, Hedley P.

Around 1913, Chapel S. Carter was secretary of the H. C. Cook Company in Ansonia, Connecticut, which was incorporated in 1903 as the H. C. Cook Machine Company by Carter, Henry C. Cook, and Lewis I. Cook. Around 1928, when Carter was president of the company, he claimed the "Gem" brand fingernail clipper was introduced in 1896.

In 1947, William E. Bassett (who started the W. E. Bassett Company in 1939) developed the "Trim" brand nail clipper, using the jaw-style design that had been around since the 19th century, but adding two nibs near the base of the file to prevent lateral movement, replacing the pinned rivet with a notched rivet, and adding a thumb-swerve in the lever.

References

References

  1. (8 February 2017). "Fingernail Trimming: What We Did Before Nail Clippers".
  2. Smith, Ernie. (2017-02-14). "The Long, Slightly Strange History Behind Fingernail Clipping".
  3. (8 February 2017). "Fingernail Trimming History: What We Did Before Nail Clippers".
  4. [https://books.google.com/books?id=bvvlAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA227 An Export Shipping Tour of New York City], ''American Industries'', Volume 14, Number 5, [[National Association of Manufacturers]], December 1913, p. 43 (retrieved 30 August 2010 from Google Books)
  5. [https://books.google.com/books?id=9p7mAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA167 Notes, News and Personals], ''[[Modern Machinery]]'', Volumes 13–14, May 1903, p. 167 (retrieved 30 August 2010 from Google Books)
  6. [https://books.google.com/books?id=HnpLAAAAYAAJ&q=chapel+s.+carter], ''[[The American Exporter]]'', Volume 102, John C. Cochran Co., 1928, p.162 (retrieved 30 August 2010 from Google Books)
  7. Baker, Nicholson, [http://www.newyorker.com/archive/1994/11/07/1994_11_07_165_TNY_CARDS_000369857 "Clip Art"], Annals of Technology, ''[[The New Yorker]]'', November 7, 1994, pp. 165-67 (retrieved 30 August 2010)

::callout[type=info title="Wikipedia Source"] This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page. ::

mechanical-hand-toolsnail-carecutting-toolsdomestic-implementstoiletrymedical-equipment19th-century-inventions