Samuel Briskman, of Brooklyn [Born: 24 Dec 1896, Died: Feb 1967], invented pinking shears in 1931 and received his first three patents for them in 1934. He formed the Pinking Shears Corporation and set up a factory at 102 Prince Street in Manhattan, New York. [The storefront is now a Tumi Luggage Store in the fashionable Soho neighborhood.] His firm milled the teeth into the blades. Wiss made the actual shears and had the exclusive sales in the USA and through their agents abroad. Briskman was also entitled to sell abroad under the name of Pinking Shears Corp. through his agents. Based on the number of pinking shears instruction folders printed in the early 1950s, they were the boom years for pinking shears sales.

He had one son, Arthur (Artie) Briskman, who worked with him. We have no idea what happened to them, but sales fell off after a change in the type of fabric that was popular (synthetics don't need to be pinked). And then serge stitching became common on sewing machines. Norman F. Wiss, Sr. was the one who pushed for and who managed the agreement with Briskman. The Briskmans filed for many more patents over the years.

Also see patents assigned to J. Wiss & Sons: J Wiss Patents.

Initial Patents Note that these patents were good for 17 years. Seeing these patent numbers on shears denotes that it was made any time within that period and beyond.
1,959,190 Method of Making Pinking Shears Filed: March 17, 1932 Issued: May 15, 1934	1,965,443 Pinking Shears [Model A] Filed: March 17, 1932 Issued: July 3, 1934	1,970,408 Pinking Shears [Model C] Filed: Sept. 19, 1931 Issued: Aug. 14, 1934
Enhancements to the core patents
2,286,874 Method of Making Pinking Shears Filed: July 18, 1940 Issued: June 16, 1942	2,564,251 Pinking Shears Filed: June 9, 1949 Issued: Aug. 14, 1951	2,607,986 Shears With Teeth For Cutting Along Zigzag Lines Filed: Aug. 19, 1947 Issued: Aug. 26, 1952	2,850,803 Shears with Arcuate Profiled Teeth Filed: Nov. 20, 1957 Issued: Sept. 9, 1958
2,916,822 Left-Handed Pinking Shears Filed: March, 31, 1959 Issued: Dec, 15, 1959	2,949,050 Method Of Making Pinking Or Scalloping Shears Filed: Dec. 16, 1956 Issued: Aug. 16, 1960	3,170,237 Pinking Shears Filed: Dec. 3, 1962 Issued: Feb. 23, 1965
Covering the equipment to cut the teeth
1,981,935 Lapping Machine Filed: March 18, 1932 Issued: Nov. 27, 1934	2,242,097 Pinking Machine Filed: May 9, 1939 Issued: May 13, 1941	2,289,155 Tool Holder Filed: Sept. 12, 1940 Issued: July 7, 1942	2,348,529 Pinking Machine Filed: Nov. 13, 1942 Issued: May 9, 1944	2,353,096 Work Holder Filed: Sept. 18, 1941 Issued: July 4, 1944
2,537,164 Work Holder For Pinking Shears Filed: July 3, 1946 Issued: Jan. 9, 1951	2,592,344 Apparatus for Finishing Toothed Cutting Blades Filed: Jan. 30, 1948 Issued: April 8, 1952	3,130,521 Device for Lapping the Cutting Edges of Pinking Shears Filed: Aug. 3, 1962 Issued: April 28, 1964	3,257,876 Magnetic Chucking Device Filed: Jan. 21, 1965 Issued: June 28, 1966	3,304,596 Workholder for Machining Pivot Holes in Pinking Shears Filed: Jan. 21, 1965 Issued: Feb. 21, 1967
Electric Pinking Shears: Briskman may never have manufactured these
3,408,875 Power-Operated Tool Filed: March 9, 1967 Issued: Nov. 5, 1968	3,536,976 Power-Driven Electronically Controlled Tool Filed: March 9, 1967 Issued: Oct. 27, 1970	3,583,067 Universal Power-Operated Handtool Filed: July 12, 1968 Issued: June 8, 1971

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