Stapler of the Week Archive- Elastic JUWEL 90 & JUWELETTE

Elastic JUWEL 90 steel brushed polish and red plastic

Elastic JUWELETTE steel matte polish and red plastic

Here are two more German plier staplers from ELASTIC.  Previously featured JUWEL staplers had a more Art Deco flavor with chrome, stylized engraving, and geometric enamel decoration.  The JUWEL 90 and the JUWELETTE have a Bauhaus inspired design that I think Walter Gropius might have enjoyed.  The more angular and simplistic form is punctuated with a black, white and red name badge and red plastic plunger tab that come right out of the Bauhaus style book.  

Aside from the name badge, they are nearly identical with only a few differences in marks and finish.  Perhaps they were produced at different times or for different markets.  In the time I have been researching staplers, the ELASTIC JUWEL line has passed hands, being purchased and manufactured by Isaberg-Rapid in Sweden and today once again in Germany by Leitz.  Both companies are currently part of the international office and stationery conglomerate ACCO brands.  ACCO brands seem to be collecting stapler manufacturers like I collect staplers.  Somehow it feels less like a quirky hobby and more like global market domination.

Excerpt from the Stapler of the Week, July 10, 2020.

Stapler of the Week Archive- Swingline 101

Swingline 101 steel chrome and grey finish

Swingline No 416 1/4" staples cardboard box with steel wire staples

My stapler collection started as a gift from my wife.  I have always felt having a personal collection is a kindness to your family when they are shopping for you.  When there is nothing else that comes to mind, they can always fall back on your interests.  This particular stapler came to me as a welcome Father's Day gift.

The Swingline 101 is a light-duty stapler with heavy-duty construction.  As with the Arrow JT-21, the light-duty classification means the tacker can only drive a shorter staple.  The 101 can load a staple with either a 1/4" (No. 101-4) or a 5/16" (No. 101-5) leg.  These staples can also be loaded into the heavy-duty Swingline 200 which is shown on the front of the staple box.  Its compact size is perfect for stapling lost cat flyers to telephone poles.  I suppose now I can finally think about getting a cat.

Excerpt from the Stapler of the Week, June 30, 2020.  

Stapler of the Week Archive- Rexel Giant

Rexel GIANT steel, rubber, and plastic

Some stapling jobs require specialty staplers.  In the binding of booklets and documents there are saddle staplers, long reach staplers, and high capacity staplers such as the Rexel GIANT. The GIANT can staple up to 100 sheets with the largest of the three staple sizes it uses.  In order to drive and close a staple through that many sheets its necessary to have leverage.  It's all-steel construction is able to complete this operation where the plastic handle construction of the ACCO 131 eventually failed.  On the base, a sliding stop controls the distance of the staple from the edge of the paper and is adjusted by a wing nut on the underside.  In fact, a great deal of the stapler is constructed not with rivets but with nuts and bolts.  All of this is evidence of quality and design of a product meant to last, no planned obsolescence here.

Excerpt from the Stapler of the Week, June, 8, 2020.

Stapler of the Week Archive- Milwaukee M12 Crown Stapler

Milwaukee M12 Crown Stapler plastic, steel and electronic components

Perhaps the Milwaukee M12 Crown Stapler belongs more on a tool blog rather than here, but I feel it has a place.  I have owned a great many manual staple guns and used them for stretching canvases and household projects.  Three years ago I assisted in the installation of a twenty-eight foot high painting from Mexico.  In order to transport it, the canvas had to be removed from its stretcher, rolled and re-stretched upon arrival for display.  This experience proved the value of a good electric or pneumatic stapler but I could not quite justify acquiring an example of the industrial electric staplers lent to us by the textile conservation department.  Yet when I saw Milwaukee introduced a portable electric stapler, I bought one.
It is a much less strenuous experience than using the Arrow T50 stapler of my college years although it conveniently uses the same staples.  The action cycle does not allow for rapid repetition of stapling but also does not have the problem of double-stapling I have with the sensitive trigger of my pneumatic crown stapler.  It's not often when so many of my interests overlap so completely in one object that is useful, practical, aesthetically pleasing and enjoyable to use.

Excerpt from the Stapler of the Week, May 27, 2020.

Stapler of the Week Archive- Mercury Sr.

Mercury Sr. steel chrome and grey finish

The Mercury Sr. appears to be the patriarch of the Mercury stapler family.   Like the previously featured Arrow 210, the Mercury Sr. is an incredibly versatile stapler.  It's anvil rotates to provide three stapling configurations: stapling, pinning and temporary stapling.  In just moments the upper portion of the stapler can be removed from its base and used as a tacker to put up announcements on your office cork board.  I am partial to the swooped detail of the plunger cap that echoes the winged mercury emblem.  As the Roman god of shopkeepers and merchants, travelers and transporters of goods, I imagine Mercury would've appreciated a good stapler now and then.

Excerpt from the Stapler of the Week, May, 12, 2020.

Stapler of the Week Archive- Zenith 561

Zenith 561 steel gold and beige 

The fabrication of staplers has changed throughout their history.  Early models were often made from heavy metal castings and those of today frequently feature injection molded plastics.  The Zenith 561 comes from the era when sheet metal was punched and formed by big presses and then assembled with slots, tabs and spot welds.  In my youth, my father was a punch press operator at the Tonka Toys factory and this stapler exhibits the same assembly  techniques used to make those iconic trucks.  Its interesting to ponder the order of the stapler's assembly and how each part comes together to its finished state.  

Zenith 561 stamped details

Excerpt from the Stapler of the Week, May 6, 2020.

Stapler of the Week Archive: Swingline 4P

Swingline 4P steel grey finish

Swingline 4P steel two tone grey finish

In a recent correspondence, a friend of the Stapler of the Week shared photos of his father's beautiful chrome Parrot Speed Fastener 4P.  Parrot Speed Fastener became Speed Products and later Swingline.  In sharing what I knew about his stapler, I realized I had not yet featured my own collection's examples, although I had previously featured their companion stapler, the smaller Swingline 3P.  The 4P is the plier version of the Swingline No.4  minus the streamlined "sphinx paw" base.  This ingenious design adaptation took parts assembled at the beginning of the line and transformed a desktop stapler into one that fits comfortably in the hand.  Perhaps this innovation did not inure them to the folks in the desk industry.  I particularly enjoy the version with the finger guard.

Excerpt from the Stapler of the Week, April 29, 2020.

Stapler of the Week Archive- Hotchkiss No. 57

Hotchkiss No. 57 steel black and chrome finish

Hotchkiss No. 57 box cardboard

Hotchkiss No. 57 box interior cardboard

This Hotchkiss No. 57 is one of the many briefcase plier stapler models in my collection.  The packaging of this stapler, however, displays a variation I had not yet seen.  The "True Blue Clipper" perhaps speaks to Norwalk's proximity to the Atlantic and may have been so-themed to appeal to the nautical businessman or stapler deprived sailor.  In any case, it provides another example of variation in decoration as a marketing tool.    

Hotchkiss No. 57 from a Collectors Weekly post by American Stationer 

Excerpt from the Stapler of the Week, April 24, 2020.

Stapler of the Week Archive- Arrow JT-21 & JT-21M

Arrow JT-21 steel chrome and hammered teal finish 

Arrow JT-21M steel chrome and teal finish

In my first year of college, I bought an Arrow T-50 after learning how to stretch my own canvases.  It was the first stapler that I owned, years before they became an object of study.  The Arrow JT-21 is the light-duty version of the Arrow professional line of tackers.  After stretching several semesters of canvases with the heavy-duty T-50, my younger self probably would've much preferred the easier action of the JT-21.  

The Arrow Fastener Company was founded by Morris Abrams in 1929.  He sold staples from his New York apartment and later began to develop and manufacture staplers of his own design. The weathered version dates to the years when Arrow manufactured staplers in Brooklyn, NY, whereas the newer one to after they expanded to a larger facility in Saddlebrook, NJ.  I find it interesting how the design of the stapler has remained basically the same but the decoration gives a hint to the date of its manufacture.  Like kitchen appliances, staplers follow the tastes of an era. 

Patent drawing for JT-21

Excerpt from the Stapler of the Week, April 16, 2020.

Stapler of the Week Archive- Etona HP-210

Etona HP-210 plastic grey and off-white tone, steel chrome finish

Etona HP-210 box cardboard

Etona HP-210 box cardboard

It took me some time to embrace contemporary design and materials when applied to staplers.  Plastics were okay when used for parts that could not be produced by folding or pressing steel but were often the most frequently broken components.  My romantic ideal was that old heavy steel is what gave value to the first staplers that started my collection.  One can experience the weight of it, the coldness of it in your hand, perhaps the subtle scent of machine oil, and the satisfying sound of its action as the staple is driven home.  That brings us to the Etona HP-210, our offering this week.

The HP-210, manufactured in Japan, meets none of the criteria that once were requirements for my collection.  It weighs next to nothing and as the box states is, "Lightweight Safer for glass counters."  In fact, there is very little sensory experience to holding it.  There is only the simplicity of form and function.  This sensibility is mirrored in the other Japanese examples in my collection: the Muji and the Nalclip Nicler.  In light of all the once perceived negatives, the HP-210 has won a place in my stapler pantheon and atop any glass counters I may someday find.

Excerpt from the Stapler of the Week, April 9, 2020.

Stapler of the Week Archive- Novus J220

Novus J220 chrome finish

Novus J220 box cardboard

Novus J220 box cardboard

Today, we feature another shining German example from Novus.  We have already featured two desk top staplers by Novus, the B22 and the B7.  The J220 chrome finish has withstood the test of time nestled in its box.  Like fine silver, one almost needs to wear gloves while handling it so as not to leave fingerprints.  This fact always makes me question the design choice of such a finish in a hand-operated tool.  But as in the case of any highly-polished object aesthetic wins over function.  I suppose I'll just have to get out the white cotton gloves.

Excerpt from the Stapler of the Week, April 1, 2020.

Stapler of the Week Archive- Ellepi Klizia 97

Ellepi Klizia 97 chrome and blue finish

Klizia box

Klizia staples

Classic Italian design is timeless.  The design and the packaging of this Klizia 97 suggest it originated in the era of Zenith staplers.  At first glance I supposed it to be vintage but found it to be currently featured in online stationary, merchantiles and design museum shops.  Their descriptions all highlight that the Klizia is produced in a 4-person factory in Cologno Monzese near Milan.  A subsidiary of Metalplus, Ellepi produces a line of two other staplers, the C12 and the Neutron 78, in addition to the Klizia 97.  The vast online availability and marketing of the Ellepi staplers makes me question if  it is still the product of 4 craftspeople in Northern Italy.  I hope they are okay.

Excerpt from the Stapler of the Week, March 23, 2020

Stapler of the Week Archive- Neva Clog J-30 shallow mouth

Neva Clog J-30 brushed metal finish

I cannot stop looking for new Neva Clog staplers.  There are long stretches where I think there isn't anything new to see and then a new variation emerges.  This J-30 is keeping its opinion to itself.  The usual wide open grin is kept to a short smirk, which provides a stop for keeping that staple just the right distance from the edge of the paper.  This is the only deviation from the trusty design that started my stapler collection.

Excerpt from the Stapler of the Week, March 16, 2020.