What did cultures use for nailclippers, Scissors (to cut hair) and razors before modern times?

Question

What did cultures use for nailclippers, Scissors (to cut hair) and razors before modern times?

Answer 1

Knives, and they grew a beard.

Answer 2

You can shave, cut hair and nails with a sharp blade which have been around since pre history. A razor is nothing more that a shape blade with a handle.To cut hair you just hold it taunt and hack. For nails you use a motion as if you are carving a stick. There is also an abundance of rough stones in the world to file and smooth nails.

Before the use of metal was introduced blades were made of flints or other stones that would break with a sharp edge. They were made and used for a variety a purposes like cutting meat, weapons for hunting, and chopping wood.

Men did not have clipped hair as they do today. It was either long or shaved, since clipping does require modern instruments.

Answer 3

You've got some great, informative answers already.

However, I'd like to add some info from my archeology/anthropology professor, who is also an expert in stone tools.

We made various knifes in class, out of stone and obsidian... they are extremely sharp and you could shave very easily with them. We tested them by shaving bits of arm hair :)

He relayed a story about being on a dig and needing a hair cut. He made a blade and his wife cut his hair with it. He said it was awful, took forever and hurt like all hell.

Then he told us that they, the archaeological community, hypothesize that people burnt their hair as opposed to cutting it.

Pretty stinky endeavor, but it would work.

As far as nail-clippers they most likely bit them off, or maybe they grew some long to use as tools.

Answer 4

Nailclippers are a recent invention, 1896, attributed to a certain Chapel Carter. ("A brief history of the nail clipper" in "The Size of Thoughts: Essays & Other Lumber", Nicholson Baker, New York: Vintage 1997. ISBN 0-679-77624-9).



I remember the first nailclippers being introduced in the rural area of Southern Belgium where I grew up, end of the 50s, beginning of the 60s. Before that we used scissors. Ordinary kitchen scissors.



And scissors have been around for ages. Probably invented in 1500 BC in ancient Egypt. They looked like two bronze knives fexibly connected to each other at one end. (You can sometimes see those kind of scissors being used shearing sheep. See : http://www.powerhousemuseum.com/collection/database/?irn=232583 )



"Sir Flinders Petrie ascribes the development of cross-bladed shears to the First Century. In the Fifth Century, the scribe Isidore of Seville, describes cross-bladed shears or scissors with a center pivot as tools of the barber and tailor."

("The Story of Scissors" by J. Wiss & Sons, 1948)



First pair of scissors made of cast steel : 1761 (Robert Hinchliffe).



My father used one the first Horowitz electric rotary razors, the single-head Philishave from Philips, but my grandfathers shaved with a straight razor.



"Razors have been identified from Bronze Age Britain. These were made of bronze and were generally oval in shape, with a small tang protruding from one of the short ends."



"Straight razors (also called cut-throat razors because of their potential lethality) with open steel blades were the most commonly used razors before the 20th century. However, they are now chiefly used by barbers."



"The first safety razor, a razor where the skin is protected from all but the very edge of the blade, was invented in the late 18th Century by a Frenchman, Jean-Jacques Perret, who was inspired by the joiner's plane. Marketed as "the best available shaving method on the market that won’t cut a user, like straight steel razors." the first American safety razor was released in 1875 by the Kampfe Brothers. In 1901, the American inventor King Camp Gillette, with the assistance of William Nickerson, invented a safety razor with disposable blades. Gillette realized that a profit could be made by selling a razor with inexpensive disposable blades. This has been called the Razor and blades business model, or a "loss leader", and has become a very common practice for a wide variety of products." [You sell the razor at a loss and make profit on the blades. The same with Polaroid cameras/Polaroid film, and inkjet printers/cartridges, and video consoles/games EVT]



"[The electric razor] was patented in 1928 by the American manufacturer Col. Jacob Schick. The Remington Rand Corporation developed the electric razor further, first producing the Remington brand of razor in 1937. Another important inventor was Prof. Alexandre Horowitz, from Philips Laboratories in the Netherlands, who invented the very successful concept of the revolving electric razor [1939 EVT]. It has a shaving head consisting of cutters that cut off the hair entering the head of the razor at skin level."

Answer 5

Blades are Man/Woman's oldest invention - - - from chips of Volcanic glass filed to produce a sharp edge to clam & oyster & other sea shells which are easilly filed down to produce a blade. You would be amazed at how good of a razor one can make from a clam shell.



Obsiddian blades are your best reference tool, here is a bit from Wikipedia--

Utilitarian

Obsidian, called itzli in the Nahuatl language, has been found at nearly every Mesoamerican archaeological site. Items made from this material had both utilitarian and ritual use. In many areas, it was available to all households regardless of socio-economic status, and was used in hunting, agriculture, food preparation, and for many other daily activities. Morphologically, obsidian was worked into a variety of tool forms, including knives, lance and projectile points, prismatic blades, general bifacial tools, and utilized flakes. Blades have been found in situ with rabbit, rodent, and mollusk remains, indicating their use in butchery. The practical use of obsidian is obvious considering that the material can be used to make some of the sharpest edges on earth. When skillfully worked, the edges of prismatic blade made from obsidian can reach the molecular level (i.e., the material has a cutting edge that is only one molecule thick)."





AND HOW DO YOU DEFINE MODERN TIMES ???????



see scissors article from Wikipedia



History



Scissors from Turkey from the 2nd CenturyScissors were likely invented in 1500 BC in ancient Egypt[3]. These were likely shears with the joint at the far end[4]. Modern cross-bladed scissors were invented by Romans around AD 100.





Scissors from China from the Tang dynastyAn immense stride in perfecting scissors was taken in 1761 when one Robert Hinchliffe produced the first pair made of cast steel, hardened and polished. The forming of the bows was his greatest difficulty. Somehow he solved problems with the hole. A ready sale was found for his wares in London and other markets. He lived in Cheney Square, and was reputed to be the first person who put out a signboard proclaiming himself "fine scissor manufacturer".[5].



In a part of Sweden (today Finland) an ironworks was started 1649 in the hamlet "Fiskars" between Helsingfors and Åbo (fi: Turku). In 1830 a new owner started the first cutlery works in Finland, now a part of Russia, making among others scissors with the trade mark FISKARS. In the sovereign Finland FISKARS Corporation introduced in 1967 new methods in the manufacturing of scissors.[6]."





So tools for trimming nails & hair have been there for centirues!!



Peace

Answer 6

They used tools they made themselves from their surroundings. They could file a stone or other object finely enough to cut hair, although not in great clumps. They used these to carve, and perform other activities. It shouldn't be too hard to imagine someone intelligent enough to make a spear or arrow, finding the ability to shape something to cut hair.

Answer 7

Straight razors and knifes

Answer 8

Teeth.