Among the many collecting hobbies, collecting nails is definitely a quirky one, especially collecting toenails. Many people instinctively associate nails with "unhygienic" and will feel physiological discomfort whenever they see nails. That's how it is for me, I always feel like vomiting when I see a whole jar of nail scrapings. However, one organization in Canada collects nails like no other.
The largest number, so far, more than 30,000 people have been collected, with a total of 250,000 pieces of nails. The number is still rising and has been recorded in the Guinness World Records;
The object of collection is still the "stronger smell" toenails, so this organization has become the largest toenail collection organization.
What do you use to collect so many toenails? Can discarded nails be reused?
2,500 per pound of Chinese medicine?
If you ask this question to a Chinese medicine practitioner, the answer is yes, nails are also a traditional Chinese medicine.
The famous scholar has retired. The Encyclopedia of Traditional Chinese Medicine has introduced it, but the specific effects will not be introduced. If you are interested, you can check it out.
In the introduction, the source of this traditional Chinese medicine is: cut from the hands of healthy people.
It is precisely because of the above reasons that there are also people who pay to have their nails done.
As for the price, there are different opinions, some say several hundred per catty, others say several thousand per catty.
I checked the online shopping platform, and there are actually people selling it. The price of 10g is about 50 yuan, which means that one pound is almost 2,500 yuan.
Someone left a message below asking the seller if they would accept nails, and the answer was: Yes.
It can be seen that the nail business still exists, but it is relatively niche. However, it is not recommended to sell or buy nails privately, because there are many issues involved behind it, such as: is the donor's health good, is there a moral hazard in using other people's nails as medicine, how to use the medicine, and what is the effect...
Japanese craftsman: I can turn my nails into "diamond" rings
Japanese blogger KiwamiJapan is a very famous craftsman on the Internet. He is good at making knives. He has reached the point where "everything can be cut."
In 2019, he spent a year making a black diamond ring for his nails.
Among them, the most time-consuming part was saving the nails. After a year of saving, he even took photos of the entire production process.
The nails were collected in a transparent container, grinded into powder (he also used a coffee bean grinder), and then mixed with water. By this time, the nails had changed their original appearance, like rice cereal.
Then press the nail rice paste into a special mold, put it in the oven, and bake it at 150 degrees Celsius for an hour and a half. When you take it out, the nail rice paste initially looks like a black diamond: a black one.
The blogger softened the "black diamond", then rubbed it with his hands, then put it into a diamond-shaped mold to shape it into a diamond.
Finally, the little brother also made a self-made ring setting. After the black diamond is set in it, the black diamond ring is completed.
This video was very popular on the Internet at the time. In addition to marveling at the uncanny craftsmanship of the little brother, most of them complained that it was too cute and disgusting.
Netizens voted for the most uncomfortable shots, one of which is:
"After adding water to the nail powder, he put it into a mold and pressed it. When he tightened the bolt, the nail juice spurted out and I started retching."
The other one is:
"The black diamond softened and then took shape. He kept rubbing it with his hands. It felt like he was rubbing a black booger."
However, no matter what others think or think, this Japanese guy has finally developed a new function for discarded nails.
Collecting tens of thousands of toenails in the name of science
Different from the previous two uses, this institution collects the toenails of tens of thousands of people for scientific research.
These nail fragments are currently collected at Dalhousie University in Canada. Ten years ago, this research project began to collect citizens' toenails extensively.
The Canadians are also very helpful. After cutting their nails, they actually picked up the fragments and packed them in bags and sent them to the school. In 2013, 24,999 samples were collected, which has been recorded in the Guinness Book of World Records.
Today, the number of samples is still rising. The latest data is 30,686, which is still the place with the largest collection of toenails.
Researchers said they are studying the causative factors that lead to cancer and various chronic diseases. During the growth process of toenails, many harmful substances will be deposited in the nails, such as the heavy metal arsenic.
Therefore, as long as we study harmful substances in nails, we can get a good estimate of the metal burden in each person's body, and we can study its association with health.
The research is ongoing, but as more and more nail samples are collected, the research community has mixed results.
Fortunately, there are many samples, the research is more scientific, and the nails are easy to store, just package them and put them in a separate filing cabinet;
The worry is that nails are insoluble in water and difficult to degrade, and the agency still doesn’t know what to do with the nails that have been studied.