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I have recently, in more than one circumstance, had to attach two or more pieces of paper together when the typical resources to do so were lacking. I have tried:

  1. Folding in the corners
  2. Folding in the corners and edges
  3. Folding in the edges
  4. Origami Paperclip
  5. Creating a slit in the paper, then sticking a sheet of paper of an equal length into that slit, then crumpling the edges together.

By far, #5 has worked the best, but is not sufficient for the task, especially when trying to concatenate two sheets of paper together.

Is there an easy way to do this, or should I just grin and bear it?

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  • Are you trying to attach them edge to edge (to make a a large sheet), or in the corner to make a booklet?
    – Frames Catherine White
    Jun 13, 2015 at 0:53
  • @Oxinabox I do both, but mostly in the corner.
    – Conor O'Brien
    Jun 13, 2015 at 1:42
  • Did you try with cello tapes in the case told by @Oxinabox
    – MANEESH MOHAN
    Dec 16, 2015 at 6:49
  • Rather than disfigure the original document with contrived slits, tears, folds, etc. none of which fully achieves its goal, reconsider your rather arbitrary dismissal of the very machine that was conceived, developed, manufactured, and distributed for sale in a number of sizes and configurations to solve your stated problem. I have a pocket sized one. A wire staple's artifact is two holes that to my mind is less offensive than folded and torn documents that cannot be fed into a scanner even after unfolding, say.
    – Stan
    May 25, 2016 at 20:16
  • How do you find yourself unprepared with the tools to do the work you assume to do?
    – Stan
    May 25, 2016 at 20:20

4 Answers 4

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I have done this with modest success.

  • Place the pieces of paper together as you want them organized with top left corners aligned.
  • fold all of the corners down within a single fold, so that the fold is the "hypotenuse" of a triangle. The length of this side should be about 4-5 cm / 2" or so in length.
  • tear two slits near the center of the fold down through the fold AND the pages, perpendicular to the hypotenuse, about 1 cm / .5" apart
  • fold this new "square" section in the opposite direction of the fold.

This is a makeshift solution that should work quite well, so long as repeatted page turning isn't performed too often.

Finished Tear-Fold:

enter image description here

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  • As a grader, I'd like to say that this does not work very well. The pieces of paper fall apart really easily.
    – Justin
    Feb 26, 2016 at 13:41
  • 1
    They do upon repeated flipping back and forth, your right. However, this was noted as a problem in the original answer. That said, if you havr tape, you can attach a small piece across the flap and adhere it to the paper to prolong the solution. But, I too grade papers as a teacher and attach student submissions together while grading with a stapler. This "life hack" method is not recommended for attaching student work ad they are the students paper and I tend to oppose a method of tearing a student's work.
    – Phlume
    Feb 27, 2016 at 16:36
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A simpler variation which has worked well in my world, is to double fold the corner. That is fold first the corner at i.e. 60°, and then afterwards at 30°. The point is not the actual degress, but rather to have double interlocking creases in the corner.

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  • If you make both these folds backwards (mountain folds) and then make a small fold at 45 degrees forwards (valley fold) then with sharp creases the resulting hold is strong enough for repeated turning between pages without loosening.
    – trichoplax is on Codidact now
    May 23, 2016 at 23:50
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If you have any female friends/coworkers/family members around, ask for a bobby pin or hair clip. Bobby pins will work better for larger ammounts of paper, and flat hair clips (pictured) will work better for fewer.

enter image description here

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    Do you have an example of this working on paper?
    – Conor O'Brien
    May 24, 2016 at 20:28
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PAPER CLIP

It seems as though you neglected to reject the use of a paperclip and none of the other answers mention it.

You could even carry a few with you for those unexpected attachment issues.

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