Save Your Letters: Removing Staples

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The next thing you may find a lot in your collection is paper clips and staples. They can be removed. Once again, if it seems like they are too embedded in the actual fiber of the paper or material it is attached to, don't try to remove them -- but there are very easy ways we can do that. One way you can start is -- don't use a staple remover to remove a staple. It will literally bend the paper. It's much too aggressive and you could tear your paper. So don't use that. I just have a little piece of paper that I've stapled. What you can do, especially if you're working on a real document here, is put down a piece of paper here that you can work from, on top of your actual document, so that you're not putting a lot of pressure onto your original. I have here what's called a little microspatula. Anything that's very thin -- and as a substitute for this microspatula you can use a very small knife. Just make sure the end isn't too pointed. If you have a knife you don't really care about, you can maybe round off the edge, just so it's not real pointy. You don't want to punch a hole in your document. I mean, these are not really expensive and can be purchased from archival supply companies. I have my piece of paper down underneath where I'm going to enter, underneath the staple. And you'll notice I'm not working from the front, I'm working from underneath the staple. What you want to gently do is slide this under, holding this, and just gently lift up, gently lift up on this side. And you can gently work it. And what you are going to attempt to do is to make it as straight as possible. Once that's done, turn the piece over and do the reverse. It's going to be sticking up here a little bit. But put your paper here, insert it underneath and gently, very gently, work the staple up. And this is where a tweezer you could also use. And there, we've worked the staple out.