PaperFix
During a trip to Germany almost 20 years ago, I came across one of those slap-of-the-head clever items in an office supply store that I use to this day. When I bought this I was so enamored with it that I actually picked up a second one, thinking that eventually it would wear out and that it would be difficult to find a replacement. Turns out that I was happily wrong on both counts; the extra one that I bought is still in its original plastic display box and a slightly different version (photo below) is widely available. The PaperFix that I've owned for all these years is silent in use, completely ecological, and the ongoing cost is zero. I reach for it at least a few times a day and with one firm press of the top can bind about 6 to 8 pages (depending on paper thickness) together.
I find magazines too bulky to carry around when there are only a few articles in them that I actually want to read. Through years of traveling and learning to eliminate weight and waste, I now tear out articles I'm interested in and put them all in a folder labeled "Reading" that goes everywhere with me, and use my Paperfix to bind each individual article.
I prefer the PaperFix over paper clips or binder clips for a number of reasons, the first of which is space saving. If you have ever had 15 paper-clipped articles in a folder and seen how they expand the girth of that folder, you'll know what I mean. Paper clips and binders have to be put somewhere when they're removed. Clips of all varieties fall off and have a nasty habit of inserting themselves into every conceivable crack in cars, briefcases and desk drawers.
Once a page is removed from the bound bundle (unlike with a paper clip) it can't be reinserted, nor can you pull out sheets from the midst of the bundle without disrupting the binding of the bundle. While the PaperFix doesn’t do everything a stapler can (particularly with thicker stacks of paper), for the vast majority of quick binding jobs it’s as good as a stapler, and takes up about a third the room on a desktop or in a drawer. It’s less expensive and uses nothing other than a press on the top to get its job done.
Available from Amazon
Manufactured by Made By Humans
Favorite (15)
The_other_Bill
I received one of these as a convention giveaway a few years ago. I used it and thought it was great. It actually made me wonder why everyone wasn't using this sort of thing instead of traditional staples.
rob
I guess I'm not exactly sure how this thing works. It looks like you punch a tabbed hole through the bundle, and when the tabs are folded up the bundle stays together... is that right? Why not just folding the bundle in half?... I guess this is good if you don't mind your documents getting ruined...
dingo
Ding! Cool Tool!
kostia
rob, the tool punches the flap, folds it, and tucks it into a horizontal cut, all in one motion. You don't have to do any folding or anything. It looks much neater most times than the image above, and it's smaller than you think. It no more "ruins" the paper than a stapler does.
Better picture of the resulting "staple" here:
http://www.thinkgeek.com/geektoys/cubegoodies/98a6/images/
Plus it also comes shaped like a kitten or a puppy.
http://www.thinkgeek.com/geektoys/cubegoodies/98a6/
Chris Tucker
I have the basic, non-animal shaped "stitcher" from ThinkGeek. It gets used a lot. Plastic and is available in a variety of colors. Costs about US$6.00.
http://www.thinkgeek.com/gadgets/tools/8b70/
A heavy duty, metal version, that can easily fasten 7 or so pages can be found at the JBOX website. http://www.jbox.com/PRODUCT/STA107
It's about US$40.00.
Chris
Garret Wade sells a heavier duty one also that isn't quite so, uhm, stylish as the jbox.com one: http://www.garrettwade.com/no-staple-stapler/p/19S23.01/
Ash
I bought two of these when I came across them a few years ago. They're certainly a cool idea, but the papers aren't bound together particularly well -- a very gentle tug will pull them apart. Because the staple relies on a fold, brushing it up against another paper may unfold it enough to release it. Basically I think it works well for keeping some papers together on a desk, but I found that the staple wasn't reliable enough to be of much use.
Anna
Recently I went through hundreds of old letters and papers (from the 20's to 50's) and saw lots of papers fastened together in a very elegant way. I have no idea what kind of gadget was used but I'd love to own one.
There are no holes or tabs involved. This looks more like an embossment. Like the gadget was used to apply pressure to "raise" the paper. The imprint looks like a line, approx 3 cm long and 3 mm thick, which is very finely ruffled.
It is easy to pull the pages apart, yet this type of fastening is surprisingly sturdy.
Jeanne Thelwell
I was actually taught to do this by hand when I was in elementary school. You fold the corner over, tear two parallel lines that don't reach the edges you folded over. Fold the flap you've made to that back of the page, then lift the corner back up.
I think it's neat to have a device to do this, but don't let the people on Unclutterer hear about it.
pariah
I've tried these as well and they work poorly if at all.
dc
We have a couple of these for our kids -- they work reasonably well (for their purposes) and are much safer than having staples around. I picked them up for pocket change when all the back-to-school stuff goes on clearance at Target.
Mojotron
I brought a few of these in to our office last year and left them by the printers; they're good for printouts of 8 pages or less, anything more and the "staple" isn't made properly. It also doesn't hold up to abuse like a normal staple does, if you have a paper-stapled document in your backpack or courier bag and jostle it the staple will come out on the first/last pages. But for 2-6 page documents it worked just fine.
Robin
I've been looking for this for years!!! THANK YOU!
Jaye
Anna - I've been looking for ages for the type of no-staple stapler you described. A man I worked for over 20 yrs ago had one and it was great, made a very small and neat "embossed" imprint on the papers that held everything together. I don't like the versions that make holes and tabs.
Ben Mordecai
Regular staplerers are way too satisfying.