Pinking shears

Common card · No. 407588

Pinking shears are scissors with saw-toothed blades instead of straight blades. They produce a zigzag pattern instead of a straight edge. Before pinking scissors were invented, a pinking punch or pinking iron was used to punch out a decorative hem on a garment. The punch would be hammered by a mallet against a hard surface, and the punch would cut through the fabric. In 1874, Eliza P. Welch patented an improved pinking iron design, featuring a pair of handles. The pinking shears design that is the most well-known was patented by Louise Austin in 1893. In 1934, Samuel Briskman patented a pinking shear design (Felix Wyner and Edward Schulz are listed as the inventors). In 1952, Benjamin Luscalzo was granted a patent for pinking shears to keep the blades aligned to prevent wear. Pinking shears are used for cutting woven cloth. Unfinished cloth edges will easily fray, the weave becoming undone, and threads pulling out easily. The sawtooth pattern does not prevent the fraying but limits the...

Read on Wikipedia · Image Williamwhiteley1760, CC BY-SA 4.0