Pincinox History & Manufacturing

In 1969, Monsieur Violet, a very skilled metal worker in the petrochemical industry in the South of France, heeded his wife's remark that even though plastic clothes pegs were certainly more colorful than the traditional wooden ones, both types were as prone to breaking, rusting and leaving stains on laundry as the other.

After experimenting with many different designs, Monsieur Violet hand-wrought the first ever stainless steel clothes pins out of an old washing machine drum salvaged from his local scrap yard.

Thanks to Madame Violet's enthusiastic response to her husband ingenious invention, the word quickly spread around them that the "Violet's stainless steel clothes pins" were simply the best.

Orders followed and Monsieur Violet was soon kept busy hand-making stainless steel clothes pins from salvaged stainless steel before finally quitting his job and setting up his own company.

Today, Monsieur Violet's son uses industrial-grade stainless steel and modern metal press to continue the family business started by his father.

The production methods have certainly been modernised but the same pride is taken in making the best unbreakable, rust proof, life-time warranty stainless steel clothes pins in the world.

And Madame Violet still uses the very first pegs hand-wrought by her late husband 50 years ago.

We were contacted by George Linnane. He had the most fantastic other use for Pincinox that I had to share it with you. He has said "I literally trust my life to your pegs, that's how good they are!" George tells his story so well that I've copied his description word for word for you below.....

"Hi there,

I read on your website that you're interested in alternative uses for
your pegs.  How does cave diving sound?

Not sure how much you know about how cave diving works but we lay guide
lines (string) through underwater sections of cave so that we can find
our way back out again without becoming lost and running out of gas to
breathe.  Part of this is the use of line markers so that, when we want
to exit the cave, we know which way is 'home' when we come to a
junction.  I use Pincinox pegs for this purpose, as they do not corrode
and their one-one piece design means they cannot fall apart, as things
tend to do in caves, especially underwater!  They are also nice and
shiny, so they can easily be seen under torchlight underwater.

I've attached a couple of pictures, one showing me outside the Wookey
Hole hotel in Somerset after a dive - you can see I have a dozen
Pincinox pegs attached to a lanyard near my left shoulder, next to the
valve at the top of the cylinder.

The other picture is a frame from an underwater video so it's not
perfectly in focus but you can see me swimming past a junction in the
line at 30m depth, having attached a peg to the line (bottom right
corner of picture) so that I know which way is home.  This video is from
an abandoned, flooded iron mine in Gloucestershire.

I literally trust my life to your pegs, that's how good they are!"

This truly is a first for us and we feel proud that our pegs have such reliability that cave divers like George who risk their life performing their trade trust that very life in our quality product.

Thanks again George. We were only to delighted to provide you with a free pack.

Joe in Kildare Ireland made a couple of solid moulds and inserted a Pincinox to make a card/letter holder. Fantastic idea. I hope you enjoy your free pack Joe and thanks.

Hi folks, we received a letter this week-haven't had one of those in a while. The sender said our claim that Pincinox don't rust was not true. He included half a dozen rusty pegs along with his letter. At first we were a bit taken aback when we saw the state of the pegs covered in rust. The pegs he returned to us were a Chinese made copy of the patented Pincinox design but they were called "Inox" and obviously judging by the state of the 2 year old pegs they use inferior metals and even looking at them they are much thinner and less capable of holding heavy laundry.
We shout it from the rooftops!!- Only Pincinox last a lifetime.
Make sure your pegs clearly have punched into the metal "Pincinox" on the leg of the peg to be sure they are the real McCoy.

Thanks Angela for your great photo, such a good idea to use our tough Pincinox in the garden. There must be dozens of other uses for them outside. Good luck with your tomatoes, remember to pinch out the shoots!

Yes really mathematics. Crystal's child got to the 40 pack first when it arrived in the post and began using them to practice counting. Crystal kindly sent us a photograph to feature on our website showing other uses for Pincinox and as we loved the originality of it's use we featured it here. Unlike other clothespegs that can break leaving bits of pegs or springs that a child could easily choke on we feel our pegs are child friendly and you should be assured that if a Pincinox that dropped to the ground from your clothesline when removing clothes from it will not be a risk to your children's or pet's health.

I should also mention Crystal is using Pincinox for hanging out washable nappies she is using for her young family. Admirable, together we will help save the planet from plastic waste.

Back to mathematics. One plus two equals Free!!!  A free pack of 20 is on it's way to you Crystal, it looks like you have a young scientist on your hands!

We loved this because we know Pincinox comes in handy like Emma shows in her pictures as a bookmark and cable tidy but it also made us think of the many uses simple clothespegs are utilised for in an office including our own. We use them with clipboards and like paper clips and also as a cable tidy like Emma. Using Pincinox as a bookmark is genius as you will not loose your page like you would if the normal cardboard bookmark fell out of position but as with all genius ideas there is a slight flaw...the book won't close flat! I can't think of a single reason other that wanting to pack your book flat in a tight suitcase and keep your page where this would be an issue so it is only a very slight flaw.

Great use of Pincinox Emma, I'm glad you have found them so useful and a free pack is on it's way.

And doesn't she deserve it for this masterpiece of photography. Donna has used the Pincinox clothepins to hold her burning incense. We all know that Pincinox are the world's best clothespins but it never ceases to amaze us how many other uses you all find for them. Great picture and really good idea Donna, I hope that you will be delighted with your new pegs.

We knew Pincinox were Jazzy and this proves it! Alison here has told us that they are invaluable for laundry but also when it comes to holding sheet music during her performances, they open wide enough and have a strong grip to hold her music. Alison also has pointed out to us that she was concerned that they would have too strong a grip for delicate clothing and leave marks before her purchase. Since receiving her order Alison has told us that Pincinox are indeed perfectly made and also gentle enough to handle her delicates. As we can see, they are also proving to be a most versatile purchase. Can you dig it, Yeah!

Some people totally fill their day and Julie here is one of those people. As you can see from the pictures she has two awesome hobbies at least. Julie first contacted us to tell us that she uses Pincinox to hold the pages of her weight recording book for her tortoises Pixie and Sprite. That time we could not award a free pack as the inventive use of Pincinox was a bit too similar to other entries. We wanted to post the picture because of the sheer cuteness factor but could not as we did not award a prize but now we can because Julie is also a model maker and here you can see her other entry where she uses Pincinox to hold a window frame in place while the glue dries. What a fantastic house. Is it for Pixie and Sprite?

What a man. Bob said I'm fed up with this cheaply made rubbish but I need something to hang my smalls so he grabbed the bull by the horns and made this. It's great, it's the best Pincinox adaption we have received to date. Outstanding Bob. Bob reckons it will last a lifetime and we agree.

Monsieur Violet please take note, we should be making these!