# How did our ancestors "clip" their nails?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-our-ancestors-clip-their-nails/200651
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [September 10, 2003, 1:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-our-ancestors-clip-their-nails/200651 "2003-09-10T01:19:38Z")
**Posts on this page:** 14
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@NothingMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NothingMan)
#### Post date: [September 10, 2003, 1:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-our-ancestors-clip-their-nails/200651/1 "2003-09-10T01:19:38Z")
A question posed to me by Lil NothingSis. I have to admit I did a mental double take. Hmmmmm. I’d never thought about it before.
Perhaps they used knives - although that would seem to be a dangerous and not very accurate tool for the job.
I can’t imagine generations of people biting their finger and toe nails on a weekly basis.
Is there some obvious answer that I am not thinking of? Sheesh, I’m stumped.
Can anyone help me redeem my “smartest brother alive” status with my baby sister? (At least until shes old enough to know everything, which is about 16 far as I can tell.)
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### Author:  [@rsa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rsa)
#### Post date: [September 10, 2003, 1:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-our-ancestors-clip-their-nails/200651/2 "2003-09-10T01:42:29Z")
How far back are you thinking about? If it is before the time of common shoe wearing then the nails would be wore down by use. A little later it may have been biting (my cat does this) or perhaps rubbing with a stone.
Sorry, I’m not old enough to know for sure. 😉
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### Author:  [@DreadCthulhu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DreadCthulhu)
#### Post date: [September 10, 2003, 1:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-our-ancestors-clip-their-nails/200651/3 "2003-09-10T01:52:39Z")
I would go with the biting myself.
What? It works and is easy to do.
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### Author:  [@Not\_In\_Anger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Not_In_Anger)
#### Post date: [September 10, 2003, 1:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-our-ancestors-clip-their-nails/200651/4 "2003-09-10T01:56:27Z")
Biting your toenails is “easy to do”? Ew.
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### Author:  [@Reeder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Reeder)
#### Post date: [September 10, 2003, 2:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-our-ancestors-clip-their-nails/200651/5 "2003-09-10T02:17:17Z")
It’s easy to do with your finger nails too.
Not that they did it that way.
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### Author:  [@emmaliminal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/emmaliminal)
#### Post date: [September 10, 2003, 2:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-our-ancestors-clip-their-nails/200651/6 "2003-09-10T02:40:10Z")
Mine peel right across if I get 'em started with a scissors or my teeth, like tearing paper. Er, teeth on the _finger_nails.
Or maybe they used rocks as emery files.
When did scissors become common, anyway?
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### Author:  [@Phage](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Phage)
#### Post date: [September 10, 2003, 2:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-our-ancestors-clip-their-nails/200651/7 "2003-09-10T02:43:05Z")
When I forgot to bring my clipper when I moved into my dorm room, I used my knife. It is not too hard, and hardly more dangerous than anything else you would do with a knife. The trick is to have the knife very sharp, and to keep the fleshy part of your finger pulled back as you cut. That and staying in the white area is all you need to do.
Before clippers I suspect that many people used stone, which is the equivalent in my opinion of a nail file.
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### Author:  [@KP](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KP)
#### Post date: [September 10, 2003, 4:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-our-ancestors-clip-their-nails/200651/8 "2003-09-10T04:04:10Z")
Back then, most people didn’t worry much until they got in the way - which is a fair bit longer than is acceptable today. Also _everyone_ (including nobility) used knives a lot more than we do today. Scissors and other tools were not common, and were often reserved for special purposes (seamstressing, barbering, household tailoring repairs) The knife was the _sole_ table utensil for most meals in Europe for centuries - you could cut with it, spear hot food, etc. Spoons and forks were mostly serving utensils. The standard fare at many medieval courts was deliberately tailored to accomodate the host’s insistence on ‘no knives’ (to assure safety and civility of host and guest)
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### Author:  [@Vision\_of\_Love](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Vision_of_Love)
#### Post date: [September 10, 2003, 4:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-our-ancestors-clip-their-nails/200651/9 "2003-09-10T04:10:19Z")
How about hair? Did they just never cut it? Does hair stop growing once it reaches a certain length?
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### Author:  [@istara](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/istara)
#### Post date: [September 10, 2003, 4:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-our-ancestors-clip-their-nails/200651/10 "2003-09-10T04:22:42Z")
I find I naturally bite or tear off my nails if they get too long. Plus: mine are naturally weak and brittle, so I couldn’t grow them long anyway, without nailpolish (which cavemen didn’t have).
Hair stops growing once it reaches a certain length - in most cases. There are some instances of people’s hair growing to freaky lengths. But generally most people’s won’t go much beyond their waist, if that far.
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### Author:  [@Ruby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ruby)
#### Post date: [September 10, 2003, 4:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-our-ancestors-clip-their-nails/200651/11 "2003-09-10T04:24:22Z")
My WAG is whatever nail wasn’t _worn_ off from daily use, small knives were used pare them down to a manageable level.
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### Author:  [@Fire\_Fox\_40](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fire_Fox_40)
#### Post date: [September 10, 2003, 4:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-our-ancestors-clip-their-nails/200651/12 "2003-09-10T04:37:52Z")
I used to work outdoors alot and whenever I had a situation where my fingernail was torn, jagged or any number of things, I found a piece of sandstone would work to file it down and become less painful.
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### Author:  [@shijinn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/shijinn)
#### Post date: [September 10, 2003, 6:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-our-ancestors-clip-their-nails/200651/13 "2003-09-10T06:37:19Z")
it might be easier to tear them off if you first take a long soak in the river…
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### Author:  [@Colophon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colophon)
#### Post date: [September 10, 2003, 12:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-our-ancestors-clip-their-nails/200651/14 "2003-09-10T12:26:42Z")
Am I alone in being completely unable to bite my nails off? I have never had the habit of biting my nails, but I’ve tried once or twice and I just can’t bite through 'em. I very rarely clip them: I tend to go for the tearing method - get started in the corner by making a notch using another fingernail and then you can just tear right across.