Stop and think, someone used to tell me. Sounds like parental advice, but it could have been an early boss repeating that line. Stop and think.
On the other hand, some thinking is best left undone.
I was un-jamming a staple from my trusty Ace Clipper, model 704. Being a well-built thing, it doesn’t jam often, thank goodness. Even so, it has happened often enough that I automatically reach for the scissors, stab them into a slot near the hinge and twist. That usually brings an edge of the jammed staple out far enough to pinch it with the scissors and pull it out. Twenty seconds, tops. Five on a good day.
It was so automatic that it made me – stop and think. How long have I been doing this for it to become so routine?
The stapler was given to me by a coin dealer who was buying my business with rare coins. I’m sure he was making a profit doing it, but he was turning them over to me at prices that allowed me to set up a rare coin shop and sell them at a profit. For mail order, he said, you need a good stapler.
Thus, the Ace Clipper.
The thing has sealed up many a padded mailer in its day, and surprisingly, it has remained as a tool used regularly over the years. Before the sticky-glue-peel-the-paper-off-and press-down type envelopes – they had to be stapled. I used the Clipper everyday back then, and use it every day now.
At least thirty-five years in between.
Do they make such reliable items any longer? I had a plastic staple gun/tacker that broke right away. Oh, it still worked, but a plastic flange snapped off. The Ace, though – all chromed up and shiny as the day I got it.
The staples are back in and having joined the two receipts together, the trusty Ace Clipper model 704 is back hanging on its designated nail at the checkout counter.
Ace Fastener Company, Chicago. Made in the USA.