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Pinking shears

 
Pinking Shears

 
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Pinking shears
 
 
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Pinking shears are scissors
Scissors

Scissors are hand operated cutting instruments, and for people without hands, there is also the option of using a specially designed foot operated style....
, the blades of which are sawtoothed instead of straight. Pinking shears leave a zigzag
Zigzag

A zigzag is a pattern made up of small corners at variable angles, though constant within the zigzag, tracing a path between two parallel lines; it can be described as both jagged and fairly regular....
 pattern instead of a straight edge.

Pinking shears have a utilitarian function for cutting woven
Woven

A woven is a cloth formed by weaving. It only stretches in the bias directions , unless the threads are elastic. Woven cloth usually frays at the edges, unless measures are taken to counter this, such as the use of pinking shears or hemming....
 cloth. Cloth edges that are unfinished will easily fray, the weave becoming undone and threads pulling out easily. The sawtooth pattern does not prevent the fraying but limits the length of the frayed thread and thus minimizes damage.

e scissors can also be used for decorative cuts and a number of patterns (arches, sawtooth of different aspect ratios, or asymmetric teeth) are available.






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Encyclopedia


Pinking shears are scissors
Scissors

Scissors are hand operated cutting instruments, and for people without hands, there is also the option of using a specially designed foot operated style....
, the blades of which are sawtoothed instead of straight. Pinking shears leave a zigzag
Zigzag

A zigzag is a pattern made up of small corners at variable angles, though constant within the zigzag, tracing a path between two parallel lines; it can be described as both jagged and fairly regular....
 pattern instead of a straight edge.

Pinking shears have a utilitarian function for cutting woven
Woven

A woven is a cloth formed by weaving. It only stretches in the bias directions , unless the threads are elastic. Woven cloth usually frays at the edges, unless measures are taken to counter this, such as the use of pinking shears or hemming....
 cloth. Cloth edges that are unfinished will easily fray, the weave becoming undone and threads pulling out easily. The sawtooth pattern does not prevent the fraying but limits the length of the frayed thread and thus minimizes damage.

Other applications

These scissors can also be used for decorative cuts and a number of patterns (arches, sawtooth of different aspect ratios, or asymmetric teeth) are available. True dressmaker's pinking shears, however, are not used for paper decoration because paper dulls the cutting edge.

Name

The cut produced by pinking shears may have given its name to (or be derived from) the plant name pink, a flowering plant
Flowering plant

The flowering plants or angiosperms are the most widespread group of Embryophytes. The flowering plants and the gymnosperms are the only extant groups of Spermatophyte....
 in the genus Dianthus
Dianthus

Dianthus is a genus of about 300 species of flowering plants in the family Caryophyllaceae, native mainly to Europe and Asia, with a few species extending south to north Africa, and one species in arctic North America....
 (commonly called a carnation). The colour pink
Pink

Pink is a pale red color; the use of the word for the color was first recorded in the late 17th century, describing the flowers of Dianthus, flowering plants in the genus Dianthus. Pink itself is a combination of red and white....
 may have been named after these flowers, although the origins of the name are not definitively known. As the carnation has scalloped, or "pinked", edges to its petals, pinking shears can be thought to produce an edge similar to the flower.

Patents

Louise Austin of Whatcom, Washington, received United States
United States

The United States of America is a Federal government constitutional republic comprising U.S. state and a federal district. The country is situated mostly in central North America, where its Contiguous United States and Washington, D.C., the Capital districts and territories, lie between the Pacific Ocean and Atlantic Oceans, Borders of the U...
 patent
Patent

A patent is a set of exclusive rights granted by a state to an inventor or his assignee for a term of patent in exchange for a disclosure of an invention....
 number 489,406 on January 3, 1893 for "Pinking shears." The patent describes how "pinking scissors or shears" are superior to the existing tools at the time, "pinking irons" and "pinking cutters." The operation of the shears are described as "pinking" or "scalloping." There are references to "cut ornamental openings in the body portion of fabrics," but no references to the more utilitarian function of preventing fraying. One of the primary early uses of pinking shears was the formation of decorative edging for patchwork quilting squares.

Benjamin Luscalzo, of Chicago
Chicago

Chicago is the largest city in the U.S. state of Illinois and the Midwestern United States, as well as the List of United States cities by population city in the United States with more than 2.8 million residents....
, Illinois
Illinois

The State of Illinois is a U.S. state of the United States, the 21st to be admitted to the United States. Illinois is the most populous and demographically diverse Midwestern United States state and the fifth most populous state in the nation....
, received United States patent number 2600036 on June 10, 1952 for his improvements to "pinking shears"