A variety of nail cutters; the cutter on the left is in the plier style, the centre and right cutters are in the compound lever style

1902 advertisement from Good Housekeeping for Carter's nail cutter, produced by the H. C. Cook Company of Ansonia, Connecticut

A nail cutter (also called a nail trimmer or nail clipper) is a hand tool used to trim fingernails and toenails.

Design[link]

Nail cutters are usually made of stainless steel but can also be made of plastic and aluminium.^[1] Two common varieties are the plier type and the compound lever type. A third variety of the push-button type has also been introduced.^[2] All are common household objects. Most nail cutters usually come with another tool attached, which is used to clean the dirt out of nails. A nail trimmer often has a miniature file fixed to it to allow rough edges of nails to be manicured. A nail file allows for removal of any excess nail that is jagged or has been missed. Nail cutters occasionally come with a pocket knife or a nail catcher. The nail trimmer consists of a head which may be concave or convex. Specialized nail trimmers which have 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 which are parallel to the principal axis poke are made to address accessibility issues involved with cutting toenails.

History[link]

Razor (top) and nail cutter with bone handle (bottom) found in a grave of the Hallstatt culture (c. 6-8th centuries BC)

The inventor of the nail cutter is not exactly known, but the first United States patent for an improvement in a finger-nail trimmer (implying such a device already existed) seems to be in 1875 by Valentine Fogerty.^{[3][original research?]} Other patents for an improvement in finger-nail trimmers are in 1876, William C. Edge,^[4] and, in 1878, John H. Hollman.^[5] Filings for complete finger-nail trimmers (not merely improvements) include, in 1881, Eugene Heim and Celestin Matz,^[6] in 1885, George H. Coates (for a finger-nail cutter),^[7] and, in 1905, Chapel S. Carter (son of a Connecticut Baptist church deacon)^[8] patented a finger-nail trimmer^[9][10][11] with a later patent in 1922.^[12] Around 1913, Carter was secretary of the H.C. Cook Company of Ansonia, Connecticut^[13] which was incorporated in 1903 as the H. T. Cook Machine Company by Henry C. Cook, Lewis I. Cook, and Chapel S. Carter.^[14] Around 1928, Carter was president of the company when, he claimed, about 1896, the "Gem"-brand finger nail cutter made its first appearance.^[15]

Around 1906, the L.T. Snow company^[16] manufactured nail cutters.^[17] Around 1908^[18] (or 1911), the King Klip Company of New York manufactured nail cutters.^[19][20]

In 1947, William E. Bassett (who started the W.E. Bassett Company in 1939) developed the "Trim"-brand nail cutter,^[21] the first made using modern (at the time) manufacturing methods^[22] using the superior 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, replaced the pinned rivet with a notched rivet, and added a thumb-swerve in the lever.^[21] In 2001 the W.E. Bassett Company acquired the Cook Bates implement division of Pacer Technology.^[23][24]

Other manufacturers include Evenflo (China), Revlon (Korea),^[21] and DOVO Solingen (Germany).

Popular culture[link]

• A nail trimmer is concealed in a Bible by inmate Frank Morris in the 1979 film Escape from Alcatraz.

• Julio Cortázar provides a (presumably false) history of nail cutters in his novel Hopscotch (Julio Cortázar novel):

"Think of a repertory of insignificant things, the enormous work which goes into studying them and gaining a basic knowledge of them. A history of nail cutters, two thousand volumes to acquire the certain knowledge that until 1675 these small things had never received any mention. Suddenly in Mainz someone does a picture of a woman cutting a nail. It is not exactly a pair of nail cutters, but it looks like it. In the eighteenth century a certain Philip McKinney of Baltimore patents the first nailcutters with a spring attached: the problem is solved, the fingers can squeeze with all their strength to cut toenails, incredibly tough, and the cutters will snap back automatically. Five hundred notes, a year of work."^[25]

See also[link]

• Cigar cutter
• Dog grooming#Nail trimming
• Pliers

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Nail cutters

Look up nail clipper in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

Jeremy Shafer is a professional entertainer and origamist. He has been folding origami since he was ten, and tends to create overly whimsical and ridiculous models, such as his "Man Swatter" and "BARF Bag". As an entertainer, his stunts include folding a burning origami bird, riding a flaming unicycle, and juggling torches. He taught for 13 summers at Camp Winnarainbow, a circus-arts/activities camp in California. He is an active member of OrigamiUSA and publishes a quarterly newsletter for the San Francisco Bay Area origami group, BARF (Bay Area Rapid Folders, a play on BART, Bay Area Rapid Transit). He lives in Berkeley. He also has a Youtube Channel called [http://www.youtube.com/user/jeremyshaferorigami JeremyShaferorigami

Publication[link]

Origami to Astonish and Amuse. St. Martin's Griffin, 2001. ISBN 0-312-25404-0

• 89 original Origami designs.

Origami Ooh La La! CreateSpace, 2010. ISBN 1-4564-3964-2

External links[link]

• Official site
• Website of California origami organization BARF, Bay Area Rapid Folders
• YouTube channel

Origami portal

This article about an artist from the United States is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. v t e

Timothy John Green (born December 16, 1963) is a former American football player as well as a radio and television personality. He was a linebacker and defensive end with the Atlanta Falcons of the National Football League, a commentator for National Public Radio, the former host of the 2005 revival of A Current Affair on Fox, and a best-selling author.

Biography[link]

Green graduated from Syracuse University College of Law in 1994. He has written suspense novels and other books and has served as a commentator for the NFL on Fox. His book Football Genius made The New York Times best-seller list of children's chapter books. [1]

Tim Green is a practicing lawyer with the firm Hiscock & Barclay in New York State. He recently was a co-host "Find My Family" with Lisa Joyner on ABC Television. [2]

In January 2010, Green was named the varsity football coach at Skaneateles High School in Skaneateles, New York. [3]

In December of the same year, Green was named a 2011 winner of the NCAA Silver Anniversary Award, given annually to six former NCAA student-athletes for distinguished career accomplishment on the 25th anniversary of their college graduation.^[1]

On November 1, 2011, Green submitted a letter of resignation to the Skaneateles school board after Section III Athletics suspended the team, citing player recriuitment violations by "unnamed Skaneateles coaches." Green told the media the players should not be punished, and he said he hoped his resignation would allow the team to resume play. [4]

Bibliography[link]

Fiction[link]

• 1993 Ruffians (Turner Publishing)
• 1996 Outlaws
• 2000 The Letter of The Law (Warner Books)
• 2002 The Fourth Perimeter (Warner Books)
• 2003 The Fifth Angel
• 2004 The First 48
• 2005 Pie World
• 2006 Kingdom Come
• 2009 American Outrage
• 2007 Football Genius
• 2009 Football Hero
• 2009 Football Champ
• 2009 Above The Law
• 2009 Baseball Great
• 2010 False Convictions
• 2010 Rivals
• 2010 The Big Time
• 2011 Best of the best
• 2011 Deep Zone
• 2011 Football Hero
• 2012 Pinch Hit

Non-fiction[link]

• 1997 A Man and His Mother: An Adopted Son's Search
• 1997 The Dark Side of the Game: My Life in the NFL
• 2003 The Road To The NFL

References[link]

This article about a fiction writer from the United States is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. v t e

This article about a United States writer of non-fiction is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. v t e

This biographical article relating to an American football defensive lineman born in the 1960s is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. v t e