This little-known feature of a regular stapler was revealed in a viral video

There are a few things we spend time thinking about when it comes to common household items – staplers usually aren’t one of them. There’s nothing special about them; you load them with staples, put the lip of the stapler over whatever papers you want to bind together, and press down.

But as one woman recently discovered, there's a lot more to this common office gadget than meets the eye.



Did you know there’s a second feature in your stapler that’s hidden in plain sight? A woman named Krista Marie shared this little-known trick in her TikTok video.

In her video, she asked ‘Can someone explain what the point is?’ As she pointed out the dual function of the stapler’s metal piece (aka the strike plate).


staples.jpg
The metal plate of the stapler allegedly has a dual function. Credit: kristamarie1982/TikTok

Krista demonstrated how the plate can be rotated or reversed. First, Krista stapled sticky notes together, and then pushed out the small piece of metal to twist it around.

Then, she stapled the same set of papers again to compare the length difference of the staples – with the second being near twice the size of the first one.

In the video, Krista also pointed out the size difference between the two staples once the plate has been reversed.



This simple discovery went viral on the social media site, amassing a total of 19.5 million views, and thousands of comments.

Most of the viewers who came across Krista’s video were baffled.


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Krista twisted the stapler’s metal plate to demonstrate the second function. Credit: kristamarie1982/TikTok

‘I immediately grabbed my stapler and it worked omg,’ said one.

Someone else shared: ‘I did not know this. What?!’

While others revealed they knew they could turn the metal plate around, but weren’t so sure as to what the purpose was.

‘I knew it. I just knew that it did something but I could never figure out what,’ one person revealed.

Another added: ‘I knew I could move that thing but I didn't think about it.’

Others offered a brief explanation of the metal plate’s purpose.



They said that the default settings bend the staples inward and this firmly holds a stack of papers together. When it’s flipped, it bends the staples outwards to ‘pin’ the stack of papers temporarily.

‘The smaller one is for a firmer bond, the larger one is so you can easily remove the staple without wrecking your paper,’ one woman explained.

Someone else agreed and added that the second function is for ‘when you have to staple thicker amounts of paper together.’

While some joked around in the comments section, and asked the woman if she was bored at her workplace.

‘Bro having a fun job,’ quipped one.

‘Thankfully, my level of curiosity did not fail me this much,’ joked another.

You can watch Krista’s demonstration below:


Key Takeaways

  • A woman revealed that the strike plate on a stapler is a dual-purpose tool.
  • In the video, the woman demonstrated how the plate is reversible, with one side designed for permanent staples and the other side designed for temporary staples.
  • The little-known feature has blown the minds of millions on TikTok, with many exclaiming that they weren’t aware of the second function.
What can you say about Krista’s discovery? Were you aware of this, members? Let us know in the comments below!
 
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It seems anything shown on tik tok will amaze, astound and amuse millions! especially if they re 18 to 25 with no commonsense, initiative or brains.

Guess I should take to tik tok and show them a pic of a screwdriver handle and show them what the pattern of it is there for ? wonder if they will fall for the striped paint gag
Not to mention "blowing their [tiny little] minds!
 
And I wonder if they know that there is a staple remover built in to most staplers as well?
 
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