Okay, so I’m sitting here cutting my fingernails and reading the SDMB, when an odd thought occurs to me: the clipper I’m using feels pretty modern to me. How did people of ancient times do this grooming practice? I mean, it’s sort of more than just grooming; getting your nails too long might seriously hamper subtle hand movements and get painful for yourself and others? Did they just let it grow to the point where it breaks off? Did they just use regular-size scissors (ouch!)?
Just a WAG. If you think about how people used to live, I bet most didn’t have to cut (or bite) their nails. They wore down or broke if too long. Maybe the upper class in later history needed to do this, but scissors, knives and other stuff must have served.
Regular scissors work pretty good actually; you don’t get quite as fine a cut as with clippers, but they work much better than chewing - which it’s self works pretty good too. Your nails wouldn’t be featured on any magazine cover, but then again neither would anybody else’s way beck then. Other than that they wear off, break off, and it’s easy enough to file them even in the wilderness. Find a rock… that’s about it. If I have a ragged nail that chewing won’t fix and I’m file-less, I just pick up any old rock on the ground and scratch the jagged part a few times. Very few rocks/minerals are soft enough not to work.