I learnt this trick from a Taiwanese program on smart tips and shortcuts for daily living. I think that was in 2005. It was such a fantastic tv show! Afterwhich I’ve spotted the same instructions posted at Instructables and Truveo. Well, for my personal use, I take 3 extra steps to complete the procedure which I’ll explain why further down.

Steps:



1. Align the papers. Here I’m using 5 sheets of letter-size.



2. Fold a triangle on the left-hand corner and crease. The fold (the longest part) is about 5.2cm long, however measuring is not necessary.

3. Make a 1cm-long slit, about 2cm from the edge, then cut another about 1cm away from the first one.



4. Fold and crease the flap as shown.

You could stop at Step 4, which is officially the end. The next 3 steps seek to hold the flap down.



5. Lift up the flap from Step 4 and create that little hollow space.



6. At the top of the flap, press it down to flatten.



7. Fold down the 2 halves.



Finished!



This is how it looks after you’ve completed all the steps, except for the triangle (Step 2), which has been folded over to the back of the stack instead of forward.

Tips:

The heavier the paper, the bigger the triangle fold and the deeper the slits.

The maximum I’ve gone is 15 sheets.

[UPDATE :: There’s an even easier binding method revealed in part 4!]