Wooden Clothes Pins

There are two varieties of pins, the common kind and the spring kind which is patented. The latter are, of course, more expensive.

The woods used for pins are beech, basswood, maple, and sometimes birch, elm, and ash. The clothes-pin industry is a by-product of the wood-working industry, as the waste bits of hard wood are used for making them. About a dozen operations are required altogether, first turning them out of cubes of wood, then slotting, drying, polishing, finishing, and packing them. Clothes-pins must be smooth so as not to tear the clothes. The metal in the patent pins must be non-rusting.