Bostitch Staples

[Click for larger staples.]

I bought these staples for just eighty cents at a fading office-supply store some years ago. At the time I owned neither a Bostitch T5-8 Tacker nor a Bostitch P4-8 Stapling Plier. I still don’t. I just liked (and like) the packaging — a sturdy cardboard box, a little larger than a cassette tape or a deck of cards 4 5/16″ × 3″. And I especially liked (and like) the carefully rendered thumb, complete with lunula and interphalangeal creases.

An older package, for sale at eBay, says that these staples are “for attaching ceiling tile and walk plank / installing cornerite and other light tacking jobs.” The staples are still made, and still known as STCR-5019.

This post is the twenty-fifth in a series, “From the Museum of Supplies.” Supplies is my word, and has become my family’s word, for all manner of stationery items. The museum and its vitrines are imaginary. The supplies are real.

Other Museum of Supplies exhibits
Ace Gummed Reinforcments : Bic Accountant Fine Point : C. & E.I. pencil : Dennison’s Gummed Labels No. 27 : Dr. Scat : Eagle Turquoise display case : Eagle Verithin display case : Esterbrook erasers : Faber-Castell Type Cleaner : Fineline erasers : Harvest Refill Leads : Illinois Central Railroad Pencil : Ko-Rec-Type, Part No. 3 : A Mad Men sort of man, sort of : Mongol No. 2 3/8 : Moore Metalhed Tacks : A mystery supply : National’s “Fuse-Tex” Skytint : Pedigree Pencil : Pentel Quicker Clicker : Real Thin Leads : Rite-Rite Long Leads : Stanley carpenter’s rule : Tele-Rest No. 300