Seam Ripper

A small sewing tool for cutting and removing stitches, built as a handle joined to a forked head with a sharpened edge set at the base of the fork and, on many models, one point ground to a fine taper for working into a tight seam. A sewer slides the sharp point under a length of thread inside a seam, lets the thread settle into the fork, and lifts the tool so the edge at the fork's base cuts the thread; working along a seam this way frees it to be pulled apart and resewn. Exactly when the modern seam ripper was invented is not established, though a patent from 1898 already refers to a seam ripper by that name while claiming an improvement on the tool then in standard use.