There more you spoke on rust the more my heart ached. You have given the most insight out 15+ videos on the topic. The mention of long term affects of aolvents on the paper was a big eye opener. I have a 2 books with rusted staples but I will not give up. Thanks !

YAY! You’re back!!!

So glad to see you posting again! Your words of wisdom have been sorely missed.

It's worth noting that any time you're snipping hardened wire with a pair of cutters, the cutting can easily go flying. I had a friend who seriously damaged his cornea when a bit of wire he was cutting hit his eye. So if you are cutting the legs off staples, put on a pair of goggles to protect your eyes. Alternately, get a large transparent plastic bag and do the actual cut inside the bag. If the bit of wire goes flying the bag will stop it. Glad to see you back after a long interim!

I come to you from Nik the Booksmith. Your video is great because I 1) like science stuff 1a) like to know how things work 2) like to follow rules 3) am persnickety and 4) also do not like staple removers. For decades, I’ve been removing stapes as you do . I can’t stop myself. I don’t have fancy tools, tho I now covet them. The plastic strips seem nice for added value in the process. Thanks for the video. It’s fabulous.

I have started rescuing old knitting booklets from the 1940s and 50s from thrift stores. Staples galore and often rust stains and very fragile paper. The staples have to go - now I know the best way. Thank you.

Hurray!!! You’re back! I have learned so much from you. Thank you for sharing your knowledge with people all over the world.

Welcome back. I look forward to the next episode on rust. A technique I use with staples is, once the legs have been been bent up, I grab a leg with some pliers perpendicular to the paper and push the leg down a millimeter or two. supporting the spine with a rubber/eraser can help if the staple is firmly indented. I sometimes make a slit in the rubber/eraser for the staple to go in. Once the initial movement is successful and there is enough room to get a spatula under the spine, then I cut the legs off and finally remove it.

I openly admit most of the science went straight over my head. Having said that, the demo of your processes for removing the staples was educational and I learned a lot. Previously I would have just shoved a thin blade under the legs and levered them up before knocking them out through the spine. Now I know a lot better! Thanks Darryn👍

That was extremely helpful, I have heaps of my dads military pamphlets that I am wanting to rebind and pass down, thanks so much. Great to see you back. Looking forward to you video on the label binding (putting together a series of pamphlets) Thanks so much.

"Could the the news get any worse? Well it does." 😂

To see new videos of yours brightend my whole day! Thank you for your work and keep going spreading wisdom!

I’m so glad to hear your voice and your very illuminating and thorough explanations again! Can’t wait to see your future videos.

So wonderful to see you back in the saddle! I've only had to do this once for a family heirloom, and learned a lot - the mylar and microspatula use was great. I think "embrittlement" is my word of the day!

Great to see you producing content again - many thanks for your highly informative and often wryly amusing ideos.

So glad to have you back! Missed the videos. Hopefully everything went well getting the bindery back in order. Look forward to the new videos.

Thank you for the new post. I feared you had quit and we would only have what you did over a year ago. Welcome back. I missed you.

This post hits close! I run a micro press and I’ve started sewing chapbooks of fiction and poetry. I practiced by removing staples from chapbooks I had bought from other small presses and sewing them. Rust was a BIG issue

Great to have you back Darryn sharing your skills and wisdom AND for saving Brandenburg Concerto No 2 from a rusty stapled fate.

This was really interesting, and I'm looking forward to that combined pamphlet book. For some reason seeing those awful staples coming off the giant last pamphlet was very satisfying.

This kind of video I did not expect but am greatful for it. I can't even begin to count the number of times I've needed to do this and struggled to protect the paper. Thank you.

Welcome back! I missed your excellent advice and tutorials. I knew staples could be bad, but wow, I think they just got worse after hearing you today! Thank you. I'll be looking forward to your next video!

Thank you. I am really looking forward to your video on how you bind pamphlets.

Love to see you back! Thank you for a great video!

Great video as usual! I just loved how it end: fine humorous and enlightening

Finally ! I've been waiting for you to come back, I hope you're OK and everything is going well, you're welcome

Chemist here. I didn’t cover my ears when you explained the rust problem and I’m glad to say I didn’t have to. You nailed it.

Thank you so much for this video, it sure opened my eyes as to how remove staples from booklets and pamphlets without damaging the pages....very well thought video..,.I will surely use your method,,, Thanks again,,,greetings from South Florida,,,,,,, Josefina Mccarty

Great video as usual ;) so glad you are back ;)

This was awesome. I am serious. I never thought about staples in this manner. 😮😊

Amazing content as always. Looking forward to the binding collating pamphlets.

Thanks for the guide! I'll admit, a lot of my collection still has staples when it shouldn't. Slight correction- here in the US, Mylar is almost exclusively a tissue-paper-thin aluminized space blanket material that would not work for this purpose.

Very nice !

Yay! Terminology!❤😆

Welcome back!!!

Interesting…I think i already lost some publications due to rust…but the idea of boo binding is becoming a more feasible solution..thank you so much for sharing your knowledge ❤️❤️❤️

Well that was both a lot more interesting and more useful than I was expecting! I have some old copies of the woodworker which I've been meaning to bind up for a while - this may give me a bit more momentum, thanks!

How do you bind a such thick pamflett, just straight through? Is there any way to bind it in smaller sections to reduce the stress on the "spine"? And how do one protect the cover from further damage? Theese pamfletts seems like a couple of really interesting projects. Will you show more of them further on? Love to see your work. It's so relaxing and informative at the same time.

Love this video!!! I've been removing staples for the last year as I bind all my comics into larger volumes. Hint for a future video... Also since I don't have access to any titling equipment I have been using Heat Transfer Vinyl (HTV) often used for textiles with moderate success, again something to maybe look at in a future video...

I'm glad to see you back! I think this video will help me in the near future.

Hello, Darryn, very glad to see that you are back again. I have been making books for years and for a long time I have established your methods and very satisfied with my work. I owe it to you! There is one point I would like to have your suggestion. The thing is I have been using A4 sheets, printing them up with my old laserje with booklet style, fold, sew and cover with binders board. At the end I have a lot of A5 sized books pretty much looking the same. I wold like to import variable sizes and soft covers into my workflow for a variety. The only way I know of is to go for perfect binding but, then the book does not lay flat. Can you suggest a way I can follow which will bring together the best of both worlds. Thanks.

Entertaining and informative video as always! I'm super excited for the teased video about label binding. I'm looking to bind together individual issues of comic books, and wondering how this technique would apply.

Thanks. Simple subject for a serious issue.

Hmm, I think I need to get the staples out of some academic reprints that are waiting to be bound up into a volume - the binding is a future project, but perhaps the staples need removing now!

4:30 “Re-enactment for dramatic effect. No important paper was damaged in the making of this video.” 😂😂😂😂

All the staples you show appear to be ones put in by a wire stitcher. Other than the sharp bend where the leg meets the crown, the leg is straight. With staples installed by typical desk staplers, in contrast, the legs are curved somewhat, and the angle where the crown and leg meet are a more open angle. The actual angle may in fact be the original 90 degree angle from the stick of staples, and the bending down of the legs is just a smooth (though varying) curvature of the leg overall. When straightening such staples, it would seem best to lift the legs as show in the video only until the bend between the leg and crown is 90 degrees. As this point the legs will not appear straight overall. The legs can then be cut off, or straightened with pliers so they can slip through the holes in the paper without enlarging them. If you try bending the legs so they overall appear straight up, the root of the legs will actually be spread wider than the distance between the holes in the paper, and so the holes will tear as the staple is removed, whether the legs are cut off or not.

I cannot wait for the tutorial on the label binding! That would be useful for my collection of pamphlets from school to archive them neatly away. Would stainless steel staples rust like these overtime? Just like with the staples, is there a safe way to remove rusted paperclips to avoid damaging the paper further?

- non-metal staples exist - you can use a hollow metal tube to bend the staples' legs, like the barrel of your ballpoint