Editing Nail clipper

{{Short description|Tool for trimming toe nails or finger nails}}
[[Image:Nail-clippers-variety.jpg|thumb|300px|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 [[cutting|trim]] [[fingernails]], [[toenails]] and [[hangnail]]s.

==Design==
{{Css Image Crop
 | 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 [[plier|pliers]] type and the [[compound lever]] type. Many nail clippers come with a miniature [[File (tool)|file]] affixed to them, for [[manicure|manicuring]] (smoothing) the rough edges of nails, and some come with a nail catcher. {{citation needed|date=February 2025}}

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 (geometry)|parallel]] or [[perpendicular]] to the [[Principal axis (mechanics)|principal axis]] of the cutter. Cutting heads that are parallel to the principal axis are made to address accessibility issues involved with cutting toenails.{{citation needed|date=February 2025}}

==History==
[[File: Magdalenenberg cut and shave.jpg|thumb|left|Razor (top) and nail cutter with bone handle (bottom) found in a grave of the [[Hallstatt culture]] ({{Circa}} 6th–8th centuries BC)]]
[[File:Roman nailclipper.jpg|thumb|Roman nail clipper made of bronze, 3rd to 4th century AD]]
[[File: H. C. Cook Company - nail trimmer, 1902.png|thumb|right|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 (Horace)|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."<ref>{{cite web |last1=Smith |first1=Ernie |title=Fingernail Trimming: What We Did Before Nail Clippers |url=https://tedium.co/2017/02/07/fingernail-trimming-history/ |website=Tedium.co |date=8 February 2017 |access-date=9 September 2018}}</ref>

The first [[United States]] patent for an improvement in fingernail clippers (then dubbed "finger-nail trimmers") was filed in 1875 by Valentine Fogerty.<ref>{{Cite patent
 | country = US
 | number = 161112
 | title = Improvement in finger-nail trimmers
 | gdate = February 24, 1875
 | invent1 = Fogerty, Valentine
}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|last=Smith|first=Ernie|date=2017-02-14|title=The Long, Slightly Strange History Behind Fingernail Clipping|url=http://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/fingernails-clipping-history-nails|access-date=2020-06-06|website=Atlas Obscura|language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|title=Fingernail Trimming History: What We Did Before Nail Clippers|url=https://tedium.co/2017/02/07/fingernail-trimming-history/|access-date=2020-06-06|website=Tedium: The Dull Side of the Internet.|date=8 February 2017 |language=en}}</ref> Subsequent patents for improvements in fingernail clippers were filed in 1876, by William C. Edge,<ref>{{Cite patent
 | country= US
 | number = 183256
 | title = Improvement in finger-nail trimmers
 | gdate = October 17, 1876
 | invent1 = Edge, William C.
}}</ref> and in 1878, by John H. Hollman.<ref>{{Cite patent
 | country= US
 | number = 205088
 | title = Improvement in finger-nail trimmers
 | gdate = April 17, 1878
 | invent1 = Hollman, John H.
}}</ref> Later patent filings for fingernail clippers include: one by Eugene Heim and Celestin Matz in 1881,<ref>{{Cite patent
 | country= US
 | number = 244891
 | title = Finger-nail trimmer
 | gdate = July 26, 1881
 | invent1 = Heim, Eugene
 | invent2 = Matz, Celestin
}}</ref> one in 1885 by George H. Coates (for a "finger-nail cutter"),<ref>{{Cite patent
 | country= US
 | number = 342780
 | title = Finger-nail cutter
 | gdate = August 24, 1885
 | invent1 = Coates, George H.
}}</ref> an 1886 patent  by Hungarian Inventor [[David Gestetner]], a 1905 patent by Chapel S. Carter,<ref>{{Cite news
  | title = Deacon Selden Carter dies
  | newspaper = [[The Day (New London)|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}}</ref> and another by Chapel S. Carter and Hedley P. Carter in 1922.<ref>{{Cite patent
 | country= US
 | number = 1436010
 | title = Finger-nail trimmer
 | gdate = November 21, 1922
 | invent1 = Carter, Chapel S.
 | invent2 = Carter, Hedley P.
}}</ref> 

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

In 1947, William E. Bassett (who started the W. E. Bassett Company in 1939) developed the "Trim" brand nail clipper,<ref name=baker>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)</ref> 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.<ref name=baker/>
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==See also==
* [[Cigar cutter]]
* [[Dog grooming#Nail clipping|Dog grooming § Nail clipping]]
* [[Manicure]]
* [[Pedicure]]
* [[Pliers]]
==References==
{{Reflist|2}}

==External links==
*{{Commons category-inline|Nail cutters}}
*{{Wiktionary-inline}}

{{Cutting and abrasive tools}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Nail Clipper}}
[[Category:Mechanical hand tools]]
[[Category:Nail care]]
[[Category:Cutting tools]]
[[Category:Domestic implements]]
[[Category:Toiletry]]
[[Category:Medical equipment]]
[[Category:19th-century inventions]]