Hello Everyone,
Cleaning the bathroom tonight I happen to see a pair of nail clippers and thought to myself what a precision instrument. The clippers are made to some fairly tight tolerances and the same with small nail scissors.
So, I got to thinking, how or what did people use in time gone by to trim their nails? While clippers might not be a precision instrument by today’s standards, they certainly would be in the era of blacksmiths.
Toe and finger care is a necessary maintenance to prevent ingrown nails and for just plain comfort. So what did they use? Files would be my guess.
My Old FIL cut his finger nails with his pocket knife. It looked horrid to watch. But he did a good job. He was handy with that pocket knife. I’m thinking that must be what they did.
If it will cut a quill, it will cut your nails. You needed something sharp anyway since there were no steel nibs or ball-point biros. Or you could chew your nails if you were a nervous type.
I have more than once found myself looking for a stone to file down an irritating toe nail on a hike. Sandstone is good, metamorphic rocks can be too smooth to do it well.
While the actual design of modern lever-action clippers only dates to the 1800s, there’s absolutely nothing about it that precludes it being made by a competent blacksmith in the Middle Ages or even earlier.
This is what I was going to say- scissors have been around a long, long time, and if they didn’t use something like that, they could grind them down on rocks, or use a knife or something like that.
Huh? as far as I’m concerned, you don’t need a tool at all. I have a pair of nail clippers lying around somewhere, but when I notice that my nails need clipping, I usually just start them with a thumbnail or my teeth if that proves difficult, and tear the extra nail off. The rough edge wears smooth very quickly.
What makes you say that? Who do you think made spring-hinge scissors like this? Or forged the delicate points on arrowheads like this? Do you think either of those are particularly extraordinary?
Absolutely they could make those things, but my guess is those are higher status items (the scissors not the arrow head) that probably wouldn’t be available to most people.
I think the answer is that, aside from higher status individuals, most people didn’t need to really trim their nails, as work would keep them trim enough. It wasn’t really a high priority for the majority of humans to keep their nails trimmed and neat. If you were a high status person, there were all sorts of tools you could use…the biggest being a servant or slave or just a service like a barber. The Romans, for instance, had several implements (it’s also where I think the obsession with nails first started, at least in the western world), and it was a regular service at their equivalent of the barber. BTW, something like scissors go back all the way to Mesopotamia (3000-4000 years ago), and the Chinese also had something like it 2000 or so years ago. It’s just that they used them for other things, as a sharp knife and some pumice or other course surface worked fine for the few people who actually needed it (i.e. those higher status people).
Your guess is completely wrong. They were a common tool, likely owned by most every household not in absolute poverty. They are certainly a common enough find in archaeological contexts - not quite as common as knives, but common enough. They were essential for sewing.
My cite is the Museum of London book Medieval Finds from Excavations in London Vol. 1 : Knives and Scabbards by Cowgill, de Neergaard and Griffiths (which includes shears and scissors in its brief)
Interesting. So, your book says that, across the globe, common people had access to iron tools FOR LUXURY PURPOSES SUCH AS TRIMMING NAILS such as the example you gave? Or is it just across all of England? In London? Because, frankly, that seems far fetched to me, so I’d love to see a linked site or maybe you could quote from your book a paragraph demonstrating this extraordinary claim.
Just for reference, when I said ‘most people’ there, I didn’t mean ‘most English’ or even ‘most of Europeans’, I was kind of talking about most humans. But I’d be shocked if even most people (mainly poor people) even in England or even in London had access to items like that in the 15th century, but hell, I’m not a historian so feel free to educate me on this.