Guild Member Norah Jackson led us in a Scissor Fob Workshop at our May General Meeting. Norah has provided us with the following article regarding Fobs:
Most people would look at the fob and tell you that it is just a decoration that we place on our scissor to express ourselves or to denote that this pair of scissors belongs to me or that person. Yes, I think that this is mainly true today, but the fobs do have a purposes. Some are made to look like little pillows or pincushions, or some even use tassel with beads for weight, while others are made with beautiful beads with a charm at the end that means something to the person who owns the scissors.
On the early Chatelaines, the fob was really a decorative sheath made of leather, silver, gold, or whatever material was being used, and the scissors would be place it the sheath to protect the them. These were then attached to the Chatelaine by a cord or chain.
I could not find any reference to fobs other than the ones that appear on watches and some decorative ones that are attached to pieces of jewelry.
All though many years ago I was told that fobs were placed on scissors to protect the points of the scissors because they were very expensive and you just could not afford to go out and replace them like we do today: they were all handmade not machine made like today . Your fob should be heavier than your scissors so that, if you drop your scissors, the fob would hit the floor first and the points would land flat on the floor rather than sticking into the floor and damaging the point of your scissors.
Although I am not an expert on this subject, this seems to make a lot of sense to me. As for me I, will continue to make fobs for each of my scissors in my collection and to enjoy having that decorative piece of jewelry or that little stitched pillow hanging from the beautiful scissors that I use when I stitch every day.
