Nail clipper

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

A nail clipper of the current type with opposing cutting teeth lacks a safety mechanism to prevent accidental cuts into finger/toe flesh and it also lacks a mechanism to prevent nail clippings (the part of a nail that gets clipped off) from flying away. Because of lack of a safety mechanism, one has to be extremely careful and watch out closely when one is cutting finger/toe nails with a nail clipper of the current type, especially when parents are cutting finger/toe nails of their young kids. It can also be a challenge for people who can not bend easily, for example, senior people, to cut their toe nails with a nail clipper of the current type. A nail clipper of the present invention will solve such issues.

BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

A nail clipper of the present invention has both a safety mechanism to prevent accidental cuts into finger/toe flesh and a mechanism to prevent nail clippings from flying away. The said clipper includes a cutting jaw with a tongue and a cutting board with a safety guide, in addition to other parts (either essential or optional) present in a nail clipper of the current type, for example, a nail file. The tooth edge and the cutting board of the said clipper may be flat (as opposed to curved) or may be vertically curved with a matching curvature to better fit the curvature of naturally curved nails. The said clipper will make it not just safe, but also easier and convenient for people to cut nails. A variation of the said clipper has the cutting board replaced with an identical cutting jaw with a tongue to make use of the tongues for grabbing nail clippings.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 shows a longitudinal section view of a nail clipper of the present invention with a jaw, a tongue and a cutting board; FIG. 2 shows a top-down view of a cutting board of a nail clipper of the present invention;

FIG. 3 shows a front portion of a longitudinal section view of a nail clipper of the present invention with a nail clipping being held at the cutting board by a tongue;

FIG. 4A shows a front portion of a longitudinal section view of a variation of a cutting board of a nail clipper of the present invention with a groove at the cutting site;

FIG. 4B shows a front portion of a longitudinal section view of a variation of a cutting board of a nail clipper of the present invention with a groove at the cutting site that contains a tiny tooth;

FIG. 4C shows a front portion of a longitudinal section view of a variation of a cutting board of a nail clipper of the present invention with a tiny tooth at the cutting site;

FIG. 5 shows a front portion of a longitudinal section view of a nail clipper of the present invention showing the edge of the cutting tooth sinking into a groove of a cutting board without touching the groove's bottom;

FIG. 6A shows a front prospective view of a variation of a nail clipper of the present invention showing a vertically curved tooth edge and a vertically curved cutting board;

FIG. 6B shows a front prospective view of one variation of a nail clipper of the present invention showing a conventional (vertically un-curved) tooth edge and a flat cutting board; and

FIG. 7 shows a longitudinal section view of a nail clipper comprising two jaws with tongues of the present invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Various features of the present invention are illustrated in the following detailed description and accompanying drawings. It is to be understood that, if not explicitly specified, the term nail refers to both a finger nail and a toe nail. Also parts irrelevant to the present invention, or of prior arts, may be shown in dashed lines or omitted all together in the drawings if they can be readily inferred from common sense or experiences by people with adequate manufacturing or crafting skills.

FIG. 1 shows a longitudinal section view of a nail clipper of the present invention. The said clipper includes a cutting jaw 1 , a tongue 3 and a cutting board 5. The cutting jaw 1 has a cutting tooth 2. The tongue 3 is attached (via whatever means deemed appropriate) under the cutting jaw 1 and the tip edge of the tongue 3 is flushed with (and contoured along if the tooth edge 4 is curved) the inside of the cutting tooth 2 and aligned behind the tooth edge 4 at the same vertical level or slightly lower. The tongue 3 is elastic with a proper spring constant and, upon an upward push at the tip, will bend upward with a downward resistance force at the tip. The downward resistance force will produce a downward pressing force (see 10 in FIG. 3) at the tip of the tongue 3. The downward pressing force at the tip of the tongue 3 will cause the tip to hold a nail clipping (see 12 in FIG. 3) at the cutting board 5 (will be described in more details hereinafter). The clamping mechanism 0 and how the cutting jaw 1 and the cutting board 5 of a clipper join or are assembled (in dashed lines) are shown only as an example and can be implemented with any means currently in use. In fact the cutting jaw 1 and the cutting boarder 5 may be made of a continuous piece with a V or U or Y shaped fold at the rear. When being clamped down (as during the action of nail clipping), the tooth edge 4 will trace the path 8 and come to contact with the cutting board 5 at the site 7. While the cutting board 5, when inserted into the groove under a nail, will separate the nail from the fresh (as shown in FIG. 3) and shield the fresh from the tooth edge 4 to prevent the tooth edge 4 from cutting into the fresh, the part 6 (termed as a safety guide hereinafter) between the site 7 and the tip of the cutting board 5 will act as a safety guide and provide extra safety. The safety guide 6 will also provide a mechanism to achieve consistency of clipping results. While the materials of a nail clipper of the present invention can be all metal, as in the case of a nail clipper of the current type (except for something non-functional or non-essential, such as a plastic cover on the clamping lever for decoration purpose), other materials, such as special plastics, if deemed appropriate, may be used for some parts of a nail clipper of the present invention, for example, the tongue 3 and/or the cutting board 5 as long as the materials possess desired properties such as strength, durability and/or flexibility. Also if desired, a nail file, as in some nail clippers of current type, may be included (not shown).

FIG. 2 shows a top-down view of the cutting board 5 of a nail clipper of the present invention and illustrates possible/optional safety guides 9 at the sides of the front region of the cutting board 5. The cutting site 7 is where the tooth edge 4 of a curved cutting tooth 2 come into contact with the cutting board 5 when clamped down and hence is shown as a curved line. Needless to say that the front edge of the cutting board 5 and the line of the cutting site 7 will be straight for a straight cutting tooth 2 (not shown). If present, the safety guides 9 may give some extra protection against accidental cuts of finger/toe flesh. Again the part in dashed line is only to show a possible example of the overall shape of the cutting board 5. Many variant embodiments are possible and can be easily achieved.

FIG. 3 shows a front portion of a longitudinal section view of a nail clipper of the present invention with a nail being clipped. When the jaw 1 clamps down onto the cutting board 5 during the action of nail clipping, a nail clipping 12 will push the tip of the tongue 3 upward, which will produce a downward pressing force 10 at the tip of the tongue 3 and cause the tip of the tongue 3 to press the nail clipping 12 against the cutting board 5 and hold the nail clipping 12 there. The bottom surface of the tip of the tongue 3 may be made rough (e.g. with a grid of tiny engravings) to increase the friction between the tip of the tongue 3 and the nail clipping 12. As shown in FIG. 3, the cutting board 5 with the safety guide 6 will create a physical barrier between the cutting tooth 2 and the fresh of a finger 11 or of a toe (not shown) that shields the finger or toe fresh from being cut, thus making a nail clipper of the present invention both safe and convenient for cutting nails: one just needs to insert the cutting board 5 under a nail to be cut till the edge of the safety guide 6 reaches the end of the groove between the nail and fresh of a finger or a toe and makes the cut without having to watch out very closely where the nail clipper is positioned. Also with the safety guide 6, a nail clipper of the present invention will have a user a consistency of clipping results in term of nail lengths. Nail clippers of the present invention can be made to have the safety guide 6 in different lengths to meet different needs of different users with respect to desired nail lengths. For example, some users may like to cut nails short and they can choose a nail clipper of the present invention with a short safety guide 6 while others who like to have longer nails can choose a nail clipper of the present invention with a longer safety guide 6.

FIG. 4 shows front portions of longitudinal section views of the cutting board 5 of the present invention and illustrates some variations at the cutting site 7. While our daily life experiences tell us that a flat or level surface at the cutting site 7 on the cutting board 5 will be effective for cutting nails (for example, in the kitchen, we usually chop things with a knife against a flat cutting board), some variations may also be effective or have some advantages. FIG. 4A shows a groove 13 on the top surface of the cutting board 5 into which the edge 4 of the cutting tooth 2 will sink when the jaw 1 is clamped down onto the cutting board 5. The groove 13 needs not be V shaped and can be in any other shapes, such as U shaped. FIG. 4B shows a groove with a tiny tooth 14 on the top surface of the cutting board 5. The groove with a tiny tooth 14 can be taken as being made of two touching grooves and, depending on the distance between and/or the shapes of the two grooves, the edge of the tiny tooth of the groove with a tiny tooth 14 may be either at the same level of or below the top surface of the cutting board 5. FIG. 4C shows a tiny tooth 15 that sticks out the top surface of the cutting board 5. Needless to say that to make the variations useful, any embodiments will have to make sure that the tooth edge 4 is aligned in such a way that the tooth edge 4 will sink into the groove 13 or abut the edge of the tiny tooth of the groove with a tiny tooth 14 or the edge of the tiny tooth 15 when the cutting jaw 1 is clamped down to the cutting board 5. For variation 15, the tip of the tongue 3 may be adjusted to be slightly below the tooth edge 4 of the cutting tooth 2 to take in the

consideration of the height of the tiny tooth 15 so there will still be enough downward pressing force at the tip of the tongue 3 to hold nail clippings against the cutting board 5 when the tooth edge 4 and the edge of the tiny tooth 15 abut each other.

While a cutting board 5 without variations like those shown in FIG. 4 may be easier and less costly to manufacture, some variations may have advantages in some other aspects. For example, as shown in FIG. 5, the groove 13 can be made in such a way that when the cutting tooth 2 sinks into it, the tooth edge 4 will not touch the bottom of the groove 13. This will reduce the wear of the tooth edge 4 and preserve its sharpness longer.

FIG. 6 shows front views of two variations of a nail clipper of the present invention. FIG. 6A illustrates a variation whereas the tooth edge 4 of the cutting tooth 2 and the cutting board 5 are vertically curved to better fit the curvature of curved nails. The curved tooth edge 4 of the cutting tooth 2 and the curved cutting board 5 have an identical curvature and fit each other when in contact. FIG. 6B illustrates a conventional, flat cutting board 5 and its matching cutting tooth 2 with a fitting tooth edge 4. The cutting site 7 where the tooth edge 4 of the cutting tooth 2 meets the cutting board 5 during nail clipping may be replaced with variations 13, 14, or 15 shown in FIG. 4.

FIG. 7 shows a variation of a nail clipper of the present invention. Like a nail clipper of the current type (prior art), this variation has two cutting jaws 1 , but each jaw 1 has a tongue 3. Having a tongue 3 under each cutting jaw 1 gives a nail clipper of this variation of the present invention an advantage over a nail clipper of the current type in that the pair of tongues 3 will grab nail clippings during the action of nail clipping. The clamping

mechanism is omitted from the drawing and can be any thing currently in use.

While the present invention has been described in detail, the present invention is not limited to the illustrated examples, but can be modified and carried out in various aspects. The scope of the present invention encompasses numerous alternatives, modifications and equivalent and it is to be understood that the exact shape/dimension or form/style of a nail clipper of the present invention may vary. For example, a manufacturer may make nail clippers of the present invention in one size for finger nails and in another size for toe nails. Also a manufacturer may make clippers of the present invention with various lengths of the safety guide 6 and sell them either individually or in a set. Some embodiments detail may be omitted where it is obvious to and/or can be readily derived from common sense by an ordinary person with normal intelligence. For example, with a clamping mechanism 0 used by the current nail clippers with opposing teeth that has a pin passing through a hole in each of the two jaws, a hole is implied (and can be readily inferred) to be present in the jaw 1 , in the tongue 3, and in the board 5 of a nail clipper of the present invention to accommodate the pin.