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| Swingline 790 plastic, steel, rubber |
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| Swingline 790 plastic, steel, rubber |
I have always enjoyed Swingline staplers for their sturdy metal construction much akin to the Tonka trucks of my youth. At some point it must have become more profitable to forge the stapler of plastic rather than steel. It was the same with Tonka trucks but the cost savings are lost in quality and longevity. For example, here are two very nice Swingline 790 magazine staplers composed of at least 80% plastic. Unfortunately, that plastic construction is liable to fail as is apparent on the white 790.
On the positive side, the 790 is innovative in both form and function; undoubtably, Swingline must have won some design award with it. First off as a magazine stapler, the staples are coiled in a removable 5000 staple cartridge which is also used on several of Swingline's electric staplers. Instead of a wire spool, the cartridge is a coil of flat glued staples from which the stapler separates the staple and forms legs to be crimped in the anvil. On the mechanical scale of complexity, it's one step between a normal strip and a wire spool stapler. On the Stapler of the Week scale it ranks just between nifty and very cool.
Excerpt from the Stapler of the Week, December 19, 2010.
Do you know when this stapler was produced? I am trying to set up my office, I'm a librarian, to look very mod. Instead of buying new office furniture I am rustling up old stuff and I want my office supplies to match. I recently stumbled across this very stapler. My desk is circa 1960 and I was hoping to learn the same about the Swingline 790.
ReplyDeleteThe 790 was sold only in 1983 as far as I know. I bought mine then in San Francisco. It's been on many desks in many locations over the past 31 years and it still works great (with an occasional snag when the crimping of the straight wire jams the stapler) Easy to remedy though...
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