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The Uniball Paper Clipper – Can Uniball make a better binder clip?

Paper Fasteners Uniball Other Stuff — 09 February 2009
The Uniball Paper Clipper – Can Uniball make a better binder clip?
The Uniball Paper Clipper - Uniball's version of the binder clip

The Uniball Paper Clipper - Uniball's version of the binder clip

The Uniball Paper Clipper is a unique item in the sense that it is a Uniball branded product that is not a writing implment, but rather a system for fastening sheets of paper.  The easiest way to describe this is that it seems to serve the same purpose as your standard binder clip.   The medium size version that I have here is suited to bind up to 40 pages, while there is also a small and large verison which bind 60 and 15 pages respectively.  When I saw this item on JetPens.com, I couldnt help myself and just had to add it to my cart, I figured that for $7.50 it was well worth the opportunity to possibly find something as good or better than a regular old binder clip, not to mention that I was searching for something to put my order over that $25 limit so I could get my free shipping.

Uniball Paper Clipper Warning Label

Uniball Paper Clipper Warning Label

When I got this item delivered I was excited to open it up and give it a try, but lucky for me I did examine the package first, or else I totally would have missed the entertainment that the back of the package had in store for me.  If my Japanese cartoon reading skills are up to par, it seems to be warning me not to have two cups of green tea, while making noodles with this product or else it will come to life and stomp on everything I own.  Obviously to this day I have never mixed my paper clipping with green tea and noodle making out of fear of this devastating scenario.

uni-ball-paper-clipper-unpackaged

Uniball paper clipper unpackaged for size comparison

As you can see in the picture, the Uniball paper clipper is fairly small in size, which is nice because you can tuck it away in any drawer or even just leave it filled with the clips and on your desk if you want to have it within reach at all times.   When you load the clips into the body of the paper clipper, they slide down the length of it, similar to loading staples into a stapler, except that the clips are not attached to one another, and the clipper only holds 8 clips at a time.  The next few pictures will show you how the loading process works as you fill the clipper through the back end.

A clip ready to be loaded through the back of the Uniball Paper Clipper.

A clip ready to be loaded through the back of the Uniball Paper Clipper.

The clip will be entered into the hole you see there in the back, and you can continue to load up to 7 more clips through this hole.  Using the black thumb slide that you see on the top of the clipper, you can feel the device lock into one of the clips loaded in the shaft and it is ready to slide it up to the top where your paper should be ready.  You can see in the one picture below I have used a ruler to show how the clip latches onto the paper, unfortunately I couldnt get a clear shot of it latching onto paper, so the ruler was the best I could do for photographic purposes.

A clip is inserted into the back of the Uniball Paper Clipper.

A clip is inserted into the back of the Uniball Paper Clipper.

uni-ball-paper-clipper-ready-to-clamp-down-on-a-ruler

The Uniball Paper Clipper ready to clamp down on a ruler.

standard-notebook-paper-front-view-clipped

Uniball Paper Clipper clips 40 pages of notebook paper.

When putting the clip on a stack of papers, the clipper operates pretty smoothly, although it does take a little getting used to how to work it. I do like the way that the clips attach to the paper, and it is nice to not have the additional arms that you have with regular binder clips, it gives your papers a much cleaner look if you are handing out stacks of papers or doing presentations using the paper clipper instead of binder clips.

Overall I think that this method of clipping is pretty nice, and it does have a certain visual appeal that I think makes them nicer than regular binder clips, however the one drawback I do see is that if you leave your presentation with someone else, they can remove the clip, but will not be able to reclip the papers without having their own device.

© 2009 – 2011, OfficeSupplyGeek. All rights reserved.

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  • http://bearsbar.blogspot.com/ Superpooky

    Loved your review of these clips. They have been available for years and I was introduced to them when I went to work in an office where everyone had one on their desk! Not Uniball ones. I know you can pick them up in Stationery Box/Rymans in the UK but for cheaper than $7.50 I think. You can get coloured clips too.

  • Veronica

    I found them in London years ago. I love them. Every time I had a friend going over, I’d have them get me more clips. I should have enough now. I have seen them in the clips in stainless steel in Office Depot. I guess they haven’t really caught on here. I really do love them.

  • David

    I used this kind of clip regularly many years ago, until the supply disappeared. I think I must have bought them from Charrette in Boston — a wonderful store, long since gone the way of so many pre-Internet retailers. Thank you so much for telling us where they may be found once again.

  • http://www.officesupplygeek.com OfficeSupplyGeek

    @David – No problem, its always so great when you can find a product that you liked so much after it seemingly disappeared.

  • Carotte

    I wasn’t aware that those were available in europe! ( at least in the UK it seems.).
    I only found out about them when I recently went to Japan, and bought one in a 100yen shop, and before going back home I bought 2 others and a pack of a 100 clips, hopefully they’ll last me for some time before I can go back to Tokyo or at least London..

  • BobbieSue McKay

    I noticed on the last picture that the clip was placed approximately 2 inches away from the top left corner. This only allows a person to flip the pages upward, if they want to see the other pages. If the clip is placed closer to the corner, pages could be flipped diagonally at the corner and turned under the remaining pages, which would take up less room on a table or desk.
    When I first started working, in the 60′s, a co-worker showed me how a staple placed diagonally at the corner of a report made it so much easier to turn a page and place it under the rest of the report with only a one inch bend in the papers. Once you get use to this, you hate to see staples placed at akward places on reports.

  • http://www.officesupplygeek.com OfficeSupplyGeek

    @Carotte – Sounds like you did a good job stocking up! :)

    @BobbieSue – Dont worry, Id never position one like that for real. That was just done for the purposes of the photograph and being able to hold it so the light would hit it right so you could see the “Uni” logo. I know the frustration that you speak of though when someone staples something in a non-practical way.

  • Bob

    This is strange, I was reading your Levenger Clippes review and immediately thought of this exact device before being linked to the review! Years ago I was introduced to this by one of the Chinese children I went to school with. The stationary stores in the Asian sections of NY have great tools such as this!

  • http://www.officesupplygeek.com OfficeSupplyGeek

    @Bob – Yeah, some of these things are MUCH easier to find if you are somewhere like NYC or San Fran.

  • John

    You can bind papers in essentially the same fashion with regular binder clips. By pinching the arms a bit, you can detach them, leaving just the clip part holding the papers together.

  • http://www.officesupplygeek.com OfficeSupplyGeek

    @John – That is a great point, I didn’t think of that.

  • Sandi

    the cllips are also available in lots of pretty colors and designs. There are Christmas, valentines, Easter, Kids, pets, etc. They are used for scrapbooking and other “crafty” project. I am a writer and my biggest reason for liking them is that they are much compact and allow manuscripts to lie flat – no thickness from the folding “legs”. They are also a huge space saver on my desk and especially when I am on the go.

  • Sandi

    the cllips are also available in lots of pretty colors and designs. There are Christmas, valentines, Easter, Kids, pets, etc. They are used for scrapbooking and other “crafty” project. I am a writer and my biggest reason for liking them is that they are much compact and allow manuscripts to lie flat – no thickness from the folding “legs”. They are also a huge space saver on my desk and especially when I am on the go.

  • Anonymous

    Thaats cool, I never knew there were other colors and designs available. You are right though, the absence of the legs really make a difference when you start using more than just a small handful of clips.