The Book of Deuteronomy exhorts in 21:12 that a man, should he wish to take a captive as a wife, "shall bring her home to [his] house, and she shall shave her head and trim her nails".
A reference is made in Horace's Epistles, written circa 20 BC, to "A close-shaven man, it's said, in an empty barber's booth, penknife in hand, quietly cleaning his nails.
"[1] The first United States patent for an improvement in a finger-nail clipper was filed in 1875 by Valentine Fogerty.
[6] Filings for finger-nail clippers include, in 1881, those of Eugene Heim and Celestin Matz,[7] in 1885 by George H. Coates (for a finger-nail cutter),[8] in 1886 by Hungarian Inventor David Gestetner and in 1905 by Chapel S. Carter[9] with a later patent in 1922.
[13] In 1947, William E. Bassett (who started the W. E. Bassett Company in 1939) developed the "Trim"-brand nail clipper,[14] using the superior jaw-style design that had been around since the 19th century, but adding two nibs near the base of the file to prevent lateral movement, replacing the pinned rivet with a notched rivet, and adding a thumb-swerve in the lever.