Pinking shears are scissors whose blades are sawtooth instead of straight. Pinking shears will leave a zigzag pattern instead of a straight edge.
Pinking shears have a utilitarian function for cutting woven cloth. Cloth edges that are unfinished will easily fray, the weave becoming undone and threads pull out easily. The sawtooth pattern does not prevent the fraying but limits the length of the frayed thread and thus limits damage.
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.
The cut produced by pinking shears may have given its name to (or be derived from) the plant name pink, a flowering plant in the genus Dianthus with "pinked" edges to its petals. The colour pink was also named after these flowers.
