Swingline Stack and Shred

So some promotional materials for the Swingline Stack and Shred just crossed my desk and I'm fairly impressed. If you are like most people, you fall behind on your paper work every once in a while and have been subjected to the horror of shredding a pile of papers in chunks of 8 pages at a time. If that's the case, the Stack and Shred is meant for you. Basically, you just throw a pile of papers in the top, you close it and go about your life while it magically shreds the paper. Okay, so it isn't real magic like Harry Potter, but you close the lid and things happen, so it's like engineering magic and that's good enough for most people.

The Stack and Shred Website Guy

Swingline created a promotional website (StackAndShred.com) for the Stack and Shred that features a guy shredding paper in small chunks and the same guy using the Stack and Shred. The website isn't very exciting, and with the addition of some boring repetitive elevator music, it makes shredding seem as exciting as watching paint dry or watching grass grow. So, commentary aside, the shredder is rated at 60 dB so it is as quiet as any of Swingline's quietest shredders. The specs say the bin can hold 200 shredded sheets so that means you'll only be able to run a full auto feeder twice before you need to empty the bin.

Swingline Stack and Shred

So 100 sheets of paper that feed at 7 fpm (feet per minute) means that it will shred approximately 7 sheets of 8 1/2 x 11 standard office paper in one minute. So, in just a little over 14 minutes you could successfully shred 100 pages of junk mail or confidential paper work. Depending on the paper you attempt to shred, it may or may not shred more than one piece at a time, so it will hopefully finish much faster. Unfortunately, and there is always an unfortunately, according to the shredder spec sheet, it runs on a 10/30 run-time/cool-down schedule, so if your shredding takes longer than 10 minutes, you will have to wait 30 minutes to resume shredding.

Stack and Shred Feeding Mechanism

I got to take a look at one of the shredders in person and it is formidable. The feeder grabs your paper from the middle using some high friction rollers and pulls it into the shredder, so any pieces that won't fold will potentially cause a problem. However, the centralized feeder does mean that almost all paper and paper sizes can shred as long as they make contact with the rollers. In practice I found that the shredder was quiet, but I think "Super Quiet" is probably a slight exaggeration. I didn't have a decibel meter on hand, so I'll assume the 60 dB is correct. If you regularly need to shred large stacks of paper, but don't want the hassle of finding and paying a professional shredding company you should at least give the Swingline Stack and Shred a look.

Frixion Ball Knock Pens

I might not live and breathe office supplies, but I know what I like and I notice when something new comes around. So while on my Holiday vacation and spending time in an Okinawa "News Shop," I noticed something new.

Pilot Frixion Ball Knock Display

Buried in a display of pens with cartoon characters attached and other various writing implements that make you say "only in Japan," I found a display for Pilot Frixion Pens. It included the erasable pen with cap (featuring a slightly modified tribal decor) and a new player in the game- a Pilot Frixion in retractable form. My immediate reaction was "Tom Selleck Mustache (waterfall sandwich)," since the shiny cartoon spokesman has a great mustache, but then I calmed down and actually looked at the pens. They were just as previously described- a retractable version of the usual Pilot Frixion.

Pilot Frixion Ball Knock Pamphlet

There was a pamphlet that was also available, so I picked one up. It has all the excitement you could want from promotional material for office supplies in another language. Which is to say- not very much. One interesting oddity was at the bottom of the back of the pamphlet where they attempted to explain how the ink disappears.

Frixion Chemistry 101

The diagram clearly shows that when molecule A bonds with molecule B, it appears as normal ink. When you apply heat, molecule B prefers to bond with molecule C and makes things transparent.

Sadly, for now and the immediately foreseeable future, you can't purchase the Frixion Ball Knock in the U.S. from any of your normal retail chains. You can still purchase any number of standard Pilot Frixion Pens and Highlighters but the retractable variety are left solely to the Japanese. If you really, really, really need to get your hands on a retractable Pilot Frixion, you can find them at Japanese import resellers, but you'll pay a premium.

If you want to see these pens in the U.S. add your comment below and I'll pass them on to our Pilot rep. Maybe it'll help get these to market faster.

Sharpie Liquid Pencil Perfect for D&D

Sometime in early December I was sitting around the bar at Applebee's chatting with some friends and the bartender. As you would expect from any time people are sitting around drinking Long Island Iced Tea's, we of course circled around to discussing work. One of the best things about working for one of the leaders in the office supplies industry is that we always get to learn about new pens and pencils whenever something exciting happens.

I have blogged previously about the Sharpie Liquid Pencil and how I thought it had the potential to be the writing implement of my dreams, but fell short. Even though I didn't think it was the bees knees I still went ahead and purchased two of the Sharpie Liquid Pencil two packs for gifts (even though I do get some free office supply samples, I still have to pay for my fair share).

Sharpie Liquid Pencil Two Pack

I knew that my good friend Joe was interested in seeing how the liquid pencils performed in his day-to-day usage so he got one pair, and the other just sat on my desk unopened for several weeks. This brings us back to Applebee's and keeps my story from rambling. I mentioned the liquid pencils while we were sipping our beverages and our bartender, Amanda, mentioned that she loves the liquid pencils. It took some prodding for her to admit to playing it, but she claims they are perfect for Dungeons and Dragons.

Dungeons & Dragons Starter Set Reviewed

For those of you who aren't aware, Dungeons and Dragons is a role-playing game that involves a lot of rolling dice, strategizing and writing on pieces of paper as the Dungeon Master weaves a web of intrigue for the players to take part in. I hadn't thought about it before, but with writing and occasional erasing that needs to take place, the semi-permanence of Sharpie's Liquid Pencils make it a perfect fit. Because Amanda is a good bartender and has a genuinely cheery personality, I stopped by Applebee's later that week and dropped off that extra pack of Liquid Pencils in her official work place stocking.

A Post-It Primer For Future Game Shows

We here at Office Supplies Talk hope your holiday season was a good one. Now that the presents have been opened, the food has been digested and everyone has returned from their family gatherings (unless they live in the Northeast), the nation's attention turns to what truly matters this time of year- the history of the Post-It Note.

America, you're starting to catch on.

The impetus for the new-found interest in removable adhesive technology stemmed from a controversial question on the new Fox game show “Million Dollar Money Drop.” Which came first? The Sony Walkman or the Post-It Note? Let's go to the tape!

Soon, viewers realized that Gabe was mostly right. Okay, 3M actually started in 1902 as the Minnesota Mining & Manufacturing Company and yes, Brittany was right that they started out in other markets: they were first known for sandpaper products. I'd be remiss if I didn't point that out. But everything else he said was generally true, granting certain allowances as he was busy shoveling cash onto a platform.

While the Post-It Note was hardly invented accidentally, the removable adhesive that it uses was indeed a surprise result of random tinkering in the lab. Dr. Spencer Silver developed the formula in 1968, but it took six years before colleague Art Fry figured out the “removable adhesive + notepad = Win” formula. His creation was first sold in 1977, two years before the Sony Walkman.

And Now They're Huge

The show has since realized its mistake and invited Gabe and Brittany to try their luck again. America will surely be monitoring the show's questions carefully. Especially if they concern office supplies.

Conserve With Cleaning Products

Back in school, the concept of 'going green' was framed around the three Rs. Not that old reading/writing/arithmetic combo; the one that wasn't embarrassingly bad at spelling- Reduce, Reuse, Recycle. The discussion of green products typically revolves around the latter. It's all about buying products that are either recycled or recyclable. From binders to mechanical pencils, almost everything in office supplies has a green choice.

Cleaning products, however, are a bit of a snag. Simple Green, while a great product, is a bit of a misnomer in this regard. It's hard to recycle products that disappear into the countertop, sink or air. Thankfully, Baumgartens has picked up on R number two with its Conserve lineup. It reuses the one thing that really clogs up landfills- the bottle.

Conserve Odor Eliminator Kit

The product is shipped as an empty plastic bottle with a package of four tablets, giving you four bottles for the price of slightly more than one. When ordering online, the prospect of not having to trust a shipping company to handle liquid cleaner is a winner in itself. To best explain this neat new item (and because I ran out of Febreze), I tried out their odor eliminator at home. The process is easy: drop a tablet into the bottle and fill with warm water. The tablet dissolves much like a certain antacid.

Plop Plop, Fizz Fizz

The tablet takes about seven minutes to dissolve completely, at which point you have a full bottle of cleaner at your disposal, and three refills taking up very little storage space. Testing it out, I found that the product is definitely an odor eliminator more than an air freshener. Odors are reduced considerably, but the lavender scent is not overpowering. It will work nicely for all my febrezing purposes (good thing we declared that an official verb, as this is not a Febreze product).

Conserve is also available as a glass cleaner, bathroom cleaner, and multisurface cleaner.

Febreze the Air

I'm declaring that Febreze is now officially a verb as well as a product.

febreze
–verb (used with object)
1.  to spray with Febreze in an attempt to cover odors :He febrezed the couch before his parents arrived.
2.  to attempt to improve something without effort : He febrezed his essay by running spell check again.

People have been using Febreze for a long time now, and using febreze as a verb for quite a few years, but I haven't seen anybody make the official proclamation.  So go ahead and add it to your computer's dictionary (upper and lower case) so it won't think you are misspelling it.

Febreze, Now Cleans Air

If I'm remembering correctly the original Febreze used to be more about spraying it on fabrics and I guess people liked it.  So now we have Febreze Air Effects as well as some other kinds of Febreze products.  The question is, of course, did the people behind the original Febreze expand their product for a multi-usage spray application, or is this just "brand-washing" as Proctor and Gamble use the Febreze name to sell otherwise boring air freshener? A quick check of the Febreze home page reveals they are selling all manners of candles and oil diffusers.  I think they've strayed from the original product line.

Original Febreze Fabric Refresher in Concentrate

Just because Proctor and Gamble is going crazy with different lines of Febreze products doesn't mean you can't keep it real.  You, after all, are an OG.  Check out this huge jug of Fabric Refresher you can buy (They even released an MSDS for it). I'm not going to make any guarantees, but I have a feeling that this much Febreze should be able to take care of just about any problem.  Remember that even though Febreze isn't dangerous to pets in the course of normal usage, it definitely would be in this form.

Neon Dry Erase Markers

So the other day a package was thrown at me without much warning, so I opened it up and threw away the plastic and whatever promotional paperwork was included. That paperwork is the equivalent to an instruction manual and my manly instincts are to discard them when ever I can (like shredding the instructions for a shredder). Inside was a Jetstream 101 pen that is pretty brand new (not all suppliers have photos or pricing for it at the time of posting). As the name would suggest, it is a very simple ball point. It has a softer plastic than the most basic pen, and it feels a little thick to me, but it is a solid stick pen. I also got a Sharpie Liquid Pencil (as previously discussed) and something I didn't know was on the market, a Neon Dry Erase Marker from Expo.

Expo Neon Dry Erase Marker Pack

Now I know when you think neon you either think about the hottest fashion trends or a crummy little economy car (ask me about my road trip to Canada sometime) so not many people have fond memories of neon things. If you are a hipster or want to kill hipsters you'll already have made up your mind about neon. Since I'm still mostly hipster agnostic I can dig the total bright explosion on my white board. They are great for drawing circles around things I need to emphasize.

Normal Dry Erase Eraser

The new extra bright color does come at some cost though. My normal dry erase eraser doesn't work perfectly on the new neon dry erase marker. The magic neon doesn't dry as perfectly as my normal set of markers so when attempting to erase I have to use more pressure and usually go over it several times. I checked the dust created from my normal expo markers and the dust created from the neon expo markers and the neon dust has just a little moisture left, so they didn't completely dry. I don't know what would happen if I attempted to let it properly dry by leaving it on my board for several days, but leaving things on the board for that long just isn't my style.