Nail clipper

Claim 1

A nail-nipper comprising: a pair of elastic pieces, one disposed over the other and coupled together at one end, and spaced apart at the other ends of the plastic pieces; a cutting edge formed in the other end of each of the elastic pieces; a pair of cover plates on opposite sides of the elastic pieces and closing the lateral openings between the elastic pieces, said cover plates being coupled to one of said elastic pieces; a shaft extending through a pair of aligned holes in said elastic pieces, said shaft having a head at one end which is slightly larger in diameter than said holes, the underside of said head bearing on an outer surface of one of said elastic pieces; and a lever having a head end which is substantially thicker than the rest of said lever, said head end being pivotally coupled to said shaft and holding said pair of elastic pieces in compression between said head end of said lever and said head of said shaft, said head end further having a bottom surface which bears against the other outer surface of one of said elastic pieces during normal operation of said nail-nipper and a flat surface formed in the front end of said head, said head end arranged and configured such that the distance between said flat surface and the pivot of said lever is less than the distance between said bottom surface and the pivot of said lever, when said lever is pivoted to a position wherein said flat surface bears on said other outer surface of one of said elastic pieces the elastic pieces are allowed to move apart thereby facilitating removal of nail fragments which may become stored in the nail-nipper.